There are two kinds of replication strategies in Cassandra.

SimpleStrategy is used when you have just one data center. SimpleStrategy places the first replica on the node selected by the partitioner. After that, remaining replicas are placed in clockwise direction in the Node ring.

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NetworkTopologyStrategy is used when you have more than two data centers.

In NetworkTopologyStrategy, replicas are set for each data center separately. NetworkTopologyStrategy places replicas in the clockwise direction in the ring until reaches the first node in another rack.

This strategy tries to place replicas on different racks in the same data center. This is due to the reason that sometimes failure or problem can occur in the rack. Then replicas on other nodes can provide data.

Here is the pictorial representation of the Network topology strategy

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