The document discusses NoSQL databases and Cassandra. It provides background on the rise of NoSQL with the need for large web companies to handle big data in a distributed manner. It introduces the CAP theorem and explains that NoSQL databases sacrifice consistency to achieve availability and partition tolerance. Eventual consistency is described where updates eventually propagate throughout the system. Cassandra is summarized as an open source, distributed, column-oriented database developed at Facebook to be highly scalable and fault tolerant. It uses an eventual consistency model and is robust to failures.