# How does Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra) compare to Apache Cassandra?
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To establish a connection to Amazon Keyspaces, you can either use a public [Amazon service endpoint](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/general/latest/gr/rande.html) or a private endpoint using [Interface VPC endpoints (Amazon PrivateLink)](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/vpc/latest/privatelink/vpce-interface.html) in the [Amazon Virtual Private Cloud](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/vpc/latest/userguide/) . Depending on the endpoint used, Amazon Keyspaces can appear to the client in one of the following ways.

**Amazon service endpoint connection**  
This is a connection established over any . In this case, Amazon Keyspaces appears as a **nine-node** Apache Cassandra 3.11.2 cluster to the client.

**Interface VPC endpoint connection**  
This is a private connection established using an [interface VPC endpoint](vpc-endpoints.md). In this case, Amazon Keyspaces appears as a **three-node** Apache Cassandra 3.11.2 cluster to the client.

Independent of the connection type and the number of nodes that are visible to the client, Amazon Keyspaces provides virtually limitless throughput and storage. To do this, Amazon Keyspaces maps the nodes to load balancers that route your queries to one of the many underlying storage partitions. For more information about connections, see [How connections work in Amazon Keyspaces](connections.md#connections.howtheywork).

Amazon Keyspaces stores data in partitions. A partition is an allocation of storage for a table, backed by solid state drives (SSDs). Amazon Keyspaces automatically replicates your data across multiple [Availability Zones](http://www.amazonaws.cn/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az/) within an Amazon Web Services Region for durability and high availability. As your throughput or storage needs grow, Amazon Keyspaces handles the partition management for you and automatically provisions the required additional partitions. 

Amazon Keyspaces supports all commonly used Cassandra data-plane operations, such as creating keyspaces and tables, reading data, and writing data. Amazon Keyspaces is [serverless](serverless_resource_management.md), so you don’t have to provision, patch, or manage servers. You also don’t have to install, maintain, or operate software. As a result, in Amazon Keyspaces you don't need to use the Cassandra control plane API operations to manage cluster and node settings. 

Amazon Keyspaces automatically configures settings such as replication factor and consistency level to provide you with high availability, durability, and single-digit-millisecond performance. For even more resiliency and low-latency local reads, Amazon Keyspaces offers [multi-Region replication](multiRegion-replication.md).

**Topics**
+ [Functional differences: Amazon Keyspaces vs. Apache Cassandra](functional-differences.md)
+ [Supported Cassandra APIs, operations, functions, and data types](cassandra-apis.md)
+ [Supported Apache Cassandra read and write consistency levels and associated costs](consistency.md)