diff --git a/swh/storage/cassandra/cql.py b/swh/storage/cassandra/cql.py
--- a/swh/storage/cassandra/cql.py
+++ b/swh/storage/cassandra/cql.py
@@ -38,16 +38,20 @@
 #   datacenter as the client (DCAwareRoundRobinPolicy)
 
 
-def create_keyspace(hosts: List[str], keyspace: str, port: int = 9042):
+def create_keyspace(hosts: List[str], keyspace: str, port: int = 9042,
+                    *, durable_writes=True):
     cluster = Cluster(
         hosts, port=port, execution_profiles=_execution_profiles)
     session = cluster.connect()
+    extra_params = ''
+    if not durable_writes:
+        extra_params = 'AND durable_writes = false'
     session.execute('''CREATE KEYSPACE IF NOT EXISTS "%s"
                        WITH REPLICATION = {
                            'class' : 'SimpleStrategy',
                            'replication_factor' : 1
-                       };
-                    ''' % keyspace)
+                       } %s;
+                    ''' % (keyspace, extra_params))
     session.execute('USE "%s"' % keyspace)
     for query in CREATE_TABLES_QUERIES:
         session.execute(query)
diff --git a/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py b/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
--- a/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
+++ b/swh/storage/tests/test_cassandra.py
@@ -42,6 +42,12 @@
 listen_address: 127.0.0.1
 
 enable_user_defined_functions: true
+
+# speed-up by disabling period saving to disk
+key_cache_save_period: 0
+row_cache_save_period: 0
+trickle_fsync: false
+commitlog_sync_period_in_ms: 100000
 '''