The Last Pickle
The Last Pickle is an Apache Cassandra consulting firm delivering lifecycle services including performance tuning, data modeling, architecture, and operations support. Operating as part of DataStax's Open Source Consulting team, it maintains core community tooling including Reaper, tlp-stress, and Medusa.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersMiramar, Spain
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What The Last Pickle does
The Last Pickle is a specialist Apache Cassandra consulting and services firm founded in 2010 in New Zealand by Aaron Morton, with Nate McCall joining as co-founder in 2013. The company delivers professional services across the full Cassandra project lifecycle, including data modeling, performance tuning, benchmarking, code reviews, capacity planning, proof-of-concept work, operations planning, architecture, configuration, installation, maintenance, training, and team extension. Its customer base is horizontal: organizations of all sizes running or evaluating Apache Cassandra that require deep operational expertise the firm has accumulated since 2010.
Beyond services, TLP develops and maintains a portfolio of open source tools that have become near-standard in the Cassandra ecosystem. These include Cassandra Reaper for repair management (originally created at Spotify, adopted and substantially enhanced by TLP with support across Cassandra 1.2+ and incremental repair), tlp-stress for workload-centric benchmarking (Kotlin, with Prometheus metrics export), tlp-cluster for rapid test cluster provisioning, Medusa for backup and restore (co-developed with Spotify), and stress-operator for running tlp-stress workloads in Kubernetes with casskop integration. The firm is an active participant in the Apache Cassandra community, with team members serving as committers and regularly presenting at Cassandra Summit, ApacheCon, and DataStax Accelerate.
The business model is professional services revenue from direct enterprise engagement, supplemented by knowledge transfer (mail newsletter) and conference-led demand generation. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and is set per engagement via direct email contact. The consulting team is distributed across New Zealand, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and France. In March 2020, The Last Pickle was acquired by DataStax, with the team folding into DataStax's Open Source Consulting practice while continuing to serve existing customers and contribute to the Apache Cassandra project.
The Last Pickle firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- The Last Pickle
- Legal name
- The Last Pickle
- Website
- https://thelastpickle.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Acquired
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- The Last Pickle is an Apache Cassandra consulting firm delivering lifecycle services including performance tuning, data modeling, architecture, and operations support. Operating as part of DataStax's Open Source Consulting team, it maintains core community tooling including Reaper, tlp-stress, and Medusa.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
The Last Pickle industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Database Consulting Services
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- NoSQL Database Management Systems (HDAEAAAB)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Database Tools & Ecosystem (Replication, Backup/Recovery, HA/DR, Monitoring) (HDAEAAAO), Database/Application Data Layer Modernization (DB migration, ORM, caching) (BPAEAFAL)
Keywords
Where The Last Pickle is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Miramar
- HQ country
- Spain
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
The Last Pickle business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Professional Consulting Services: The Last Pickle provides consulting services for Apache Cassandra across all stages of the project lifecycle. Services include data modelling, performance tuning, proof of concept work, capacity planning, benchmarking, code reviews, maintenance and growth support, operations planning, architecture, configuration, and installation. The company also provides training, team extension, and knowledge sharing services.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
The Last Pickle product offering
Product offeringCore offering
The Last Pickle provides professional Apache Cassandra consulting services covering data modeling, performance tuning, capacity planning, benchmarking, code reviews, operations planning, architecture, configuration, installation, and knowledge transfer. In parallel, the company develops and maintains a suite of open source tools for the Cassandra ecosystem, including Cassandra Reaper, tlp-stress, tlp-cluster, Medusa, and stress-operator.
Product overview
The Last Pickle is an Apache Cassandra consulting company that has joined DataStax's Open Source Consulting team. The company offers a portfolio of open source tools for Cassandra: Cassandra Reaper for managing cluster repairs, tlp-stress for workload-centric benchmarking, tlp-cluster for provisioning test clusters, Medusa for backup and restore operations, and stress-operator for running stress tests in Kubernetes. Beyond tool development, the company provides professional consulting services spanning data modeling, performance tuning, capacity planning, and architecture. All tools are freely available on GitHub and designed to work with Apache Cassandra clusters.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Cassandra Reaper: Open source tool for managing repairs for Apache Cassandra clusters
- tlp-stress
- tlp-cluster
- Medusa
Products and services
- Cassandra Reaper Open source tool for managing repairs for Apache Cassandra clusters, providing automated repair scheduling and coordination across nodes. Supports all Apache Cassandra versions from 1.2 onwards, includes incremental repair support, and can use Cassandra as a backend storage.
- tlp-stress Workload-centric benchmarking and stress testing tool for Apache Cassandra written in Kotlin, with predefined workloads for common data models and access patterns. Includes Prometheus metrics export.
- Medusa for Apache Cassandra Open source backup and restore system for Apache Cassandra, providing storage management for Cassandra backup operations. Developed in collaboration with Spotify and released under Apache License 2.0.
- tlp-cluster
Quantifiable outcome
- Reaper supports all Apache Cassandra versions from 1.2 onwards
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use The Last Pickle
Customer profileSegments1 record
Ideal customer profiles1 record
The Last Pickle technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
The Last Pickle partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- DataStaxcoreThe Last Pickle was acquired by DataStax in March 2020 and joined DataStax's Open Source Consulting team. The acquisition was described as a strategic move to strengthen DataStax's open source consulting capabilities around Apache Cassandra. The TLP team continues to serve existing customers while gaining access to more resources. The acquisition aligned TLP's passion for making Apache Cassandra the best database with DataStax's broader mission.
- SpotifycoreSpotify and The Last Pickle collaborated over the course of a year to build Medusa, a backup and restore system for Apache Cassandra, which was then fully open sourced under the Apache License 2.0. TLP also adopted Cassandra Reaper from Spotify and has since significantly enhanced and maintained it, adding support for all Cassandra versions from 1.2 onwards, incremental repair support, and Cassandra as a backend storage option.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights4 records
The Last Pickle competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Instaclustr: Provides managed Apache Cassandra (and other open-source data) services and 24/7 support. Direct competitor to TLP on Cassandra consulting, performance tuning and cluster operations; sells a managed service rather than pure consulting.
- ScyllaDB: Builds the ScyllaDB drop-in replacement for Apache Cassandra. A direct competitor to Cassandra — and by extension to TLP — for high-performance NoSQL workloads, often winning on latency/throughput and pulling customers away from self-managed Cassandra.
- Aiven: Managed multi-cloud data platform that includes fully managed Apache Cassandra as a service. Overlaps with TLP on Cassandra operations and removes the need for specialist consulting by handling operations as a SaaS.
Broad incumbents
- DataStax: Parent of The Last Pickle since the March 2020 acquisition, and the leading commercial vendor for Cassandra (Astra DB). Overlaps with TLP on Cassandra consulting, support, and tools, but at much larger scale and across commercial (DSE) and open-source versions.
- Percona: Open-source database services and consulting firm covering MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and Cassandra. Competes for generalist database consulting dollars with TLP's Cassandra specialization.
- Pythian: Global data and database consultancy covering Cassandra, Hadoop, AWS and cloud platforms. Directly comparable as a boutique-to-mid-size database consulting firm bidding for enterprise Cassandra engagements.
- IBM (Instana / Cloud): IBM offers Cassandra-related services and support across its hybrid cloud portfolio, including via acquired entities. A broad incumbent that competes for enterprise Cassandra consulting and managed services dollars.
Emerging players
- Anant: Smaller boutique data platform consultancy with Cassandra and NoSQL practices; directly comparable in scale and specialization to TLP, competing for similar mid-market Cassandra consulting engagements.
Others
- Grafana Labs: Open-source monitoring/observability vendor. TLP's tools integrate with Prometheus and Grafana and its consultants often deploy Grafana-based monitoring on Cassandra clusters, making Grafana an adjacent ecosystem participant rather than a competitor.
- Orange-OpenSource (casskop): Maintains casskop, the Kubernetes operator for Cassandra — directly integrated with TLP's stress-operator. Adjacent ecosystem collaborator rather than direct competitor; together they form part of the k8ssandra stack.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
The Last Pickle social profiles
Digital presenceThe Last Pickle financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
The Last Pickle leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles12 records
The Last Pickle funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
The Last Pickle M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about The Last Pickle
What does The Last Pickle do?
The Last Pickle provides professional Apache Cassandra consulting services covering data modeling, performance tuning, capacity planning, benchmarking, code reviews, operations planning, architecture, configuration, installation, and knowledge transfer. In parallel, the company develops and maintains a suite of open source tools for the Cassandra ecosystem, including Cassandra Reaper, tlp-stress, tlp-cluster, Medusa, and stress-operator.
Is The Last Pickle a public or private company?
The Last Pickle is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently acquired.
When was The Last Pickle founded?
The Last Pickle was founded in 2010. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is The Last Pickle based?
The Last Pickle is headquartered in Miramar, Spain, in the Europe region.
How does The Last Pickle make money?
One revenue line is on record: professional Consulting Services.
Who are The Last Pickle's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Instaclustr, ScyllaDB and Aiven. Broad incumbents are DataStax, Percona, Pythian and IBM (Instana / Cloud). Anant is listed as an emerging player. Others are Grafana Labs and Orange-OpenSource (casskop).
Does The Last Pickle have an API?
No public API is recorded for The Last Pickle.
What industry is The Last Pickle in?
The Last Pickle's product category is Database Consulting Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAAAB, NoSQL Database Management Systems, with a secondary code of HDAEAAAO, Database Tools & Ecosystem (Replication, Backup/Recovery, HA/DR, Monitoring). Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7370.