diff --git a/ansible/cassandra-backup.yml b/ansible/cassandra-backup.yml
index d8a054b580..73ef0fcbf1 100644
--- a/ansible/cassandra-backup.yml
+++ b/ansible/cassandra-backup.yml
@@ -1,7 +1,28 @@
+#  This task will take snapshot serially for all cassandra nodes
+#  If we club both taking snapshot and upload the data, then the
+#  interval of snapshots b/w nodes will be very high; Which might lead
+#  to data discrepancies
+- hosts: cassandra
+  become: yes
+  serial: true
+  tasks:
+  - name: taking cassandra snapshots
+    shell: |
+      nodetool clearsnapshot
+      nodetool snapshot -t "cassandra-backup-{{ lookup('pipe', 'date +%Y%m%d') }}-{{ ansible_hostname }}"
+  - name: sleeping 1 min b/w snapshots
+    pause:
+      echo: true
+      minutes: 1 # A positive number of minutes to pause for.
+      prompt: "Pausing after snapshot" # Optional text to use for the prompt message.
+
+# Once snaphot is done, 
+# We can take the snapshot and compress it and upload it
+# This will take some cpu and memory in the nodes
+# Because of that we're running it serially, so that it won't affect the perfomance
 - hosts: cassandra
   become: yes
-  serial: 1
   vars_files:
     - ['{{ inventory_dir }}/secrets.yml']
   roles:
-    - cassandra-backup
+    - {name: cassandra-backup, vars: [ additional_arguments: "--disablesnapshot"]}
diff --git a/ansible/roles/azure-cli/tasks/main.yml b/ansible/roles/azure-cli/tasks/main.yml
index cf29bcb106..798d80188c 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/azure-cli/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/azure-cli/tasks/main.yml
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 - name: install azure cli
-  shell: curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash
+  shell: 
+    which az || curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash
diff --git a/ansible/roles/cassandra-backup/tasks/main.yml b/ansible/roles/cassandra-backup/tasks/main.yml
index 8d6da3b6d2..9d154af074 100755
--- a/ansible/roles/cassandra-backup/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/cassandra-backup/tasks/main.yml
@@ -4,7 +4,10 @@
 
 - name: copy the backup script
   become: yes
-  template: src=cassandra_backup.j2  dest=/data/cassandra/backup/cassandra_backup.py mode=0755
+  template:
+    src: ../../../../deploy/cassandra_backup.py 
+    dest: /data/cassandra/backup/cassandra_backup.py
+    mode: 0755
 
 - set_fact:
     cassandra_backup_gzip_file_name: "cassandra-backup-{{ lookup('pipe', 'date +%Y%m%d') }}-{{ ansible_hostname }}"
@@ -14,7 +17,7 @@
 
 - name: run the backup script
   become: yes
-  shell: python cassandra_backup.py --snapshotname "{{ cassandra_backup_gzip_file_name }}"
+  shell: python3 cassandra_backup.py --snapshotname "{{ cassandra_backup_gzip_file_name }}" "{{additional_arguments|d('')}}"
   args:
     chdir: /data/cassandra/backup
   async: 7200
diff --git a/deploy/cassandra_backup.py b/deploy/cassandra_backup.py
index 076379a9dd..bdabf66373 100755
--- a/deploy/cassandra_backup.py
+++ b/deploy/cassandra_backup.py
@@ -19,13 +19,14 @@
 for help ./cassandra_backup.py -h
 '''
 
-from os import walk, sep, system, getcwd, makedirs
+from os import walk, sep, system, getcwd, makedirs, cpu_count
 from argparse import ArgumentParser
 from shutil import rmtree, ignore_patterns, copytree
 from re import match, compile
 from sys import exit
 from tempfile import mkdtemp
 from time import strftime
+import concurrent.futures
 
 parser = ArgumentParser(description="Create a snapshot and create tar ball inside tardirectory")
 parser.add_argument("-d", "--datadirectory", metavar="datadir",  default='/var/lib/cassandra/data',
@@ -35,12 +36,19 @@
                     help="Name with which snapshot to be taken. Default {}".format("cassandra_backup-"+strftime("%Y-%m-%d")))
 parser.add_argument("-t", "--tardirectory", metavar="tardir",
                     default=getcwd(), help="Path to create the tarball. Default {}".format(getcwd()))
+parser.add_argument("-w", "--workers", metavar="workers",
+                    default=cpu_count(), help="Number of workers to use. Default same as cpu cores {}".format(cpu_count()))
+parser.add_argument("--disablesnapshot", action="store_true",
+                    help="disable taking snapshot, snapshot name can be given via -s flag")
 args = parser.parse_args()
 
 # Create temporary directory to copy data
 tmpdir = mkdtemp()
 makedirs(tmpdir+sep+"cassandra_backup")
 
+def customCopy(root, root_target_dir):
+    print("copying {} to {}".format(root, root_target_dir))
+    copytree(src=root, dst=root_target_dir, ignore=ignore_patterns('.*'))
 
 def copy():
     '''
@@ -48,17 +56,26 @@ def copy():
     '''
     root_levels = args.datadirectory.rstrip('/').count(sep)
     ignore_list = compile(tmpdir+sep+"cassandra_backup"+sep+'(system|system|systemtauth|system_traces|system_schema|system_distributed)')
-
+    # List of the threds running in background
+    futures = []
     try:
-        for root, dirs, files in walk(args.datadirectory):
-            root_target_dir = tmpdir+sep+"cassandra_backup"+sep+sep.join(root.split(sep)[root_levels+1:-2])
-            if match(ignore_list, root_target_dir):
-                continue
-            if root.split(sep)[-1] == args.snapshotname:
-                copytree(src=root, dst=root_target_dir, ignore=ignore_patterns('.*'))
+        with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=args.workers) as executor:
+            for root, dirs, files in walk(args.datadirectory):
+                root_target_dir = tmpdir+sep+"cassandra_backup"+sep+sep.join(root.split(sep)[root_levels+1:-2])
+                if match(ignore_list, root_target_dir):
+                    continue
+                if root.split(sep)[-1] == args.snapshotname:
+                    # Keeping copy operation in background with threads
+                    tmp_arr = [root, root_target_dir]
+                    futures.append( executor.submit( lambda p: customCopy(*p), tmp_arr))
     except Exception as e:
         print(e)
-
+    # Checking status of the copy operation
+    for future in concurrent.futures.as_completed(futures):
+        try:
+            print("Task completed. Result: {}".format(future.result()))
+        except Exception as e:
+            print(e)
 
 # Creating schema
 command = "cqlsh -e 'DESC SCHEMA' > {}/cassandra_backup/db_schema.cql".format(tmpdir)
@@ -67,18 +84,30 @@ def copy():
     print("Couldn't backup schema, exiting...")
     exit(1)
 print("Schema backup completed. saved in {}/cassandra_backup/db_schema.sql".format(tmpdir))
-# Cleaning all old snapshots
-command = "nodetool clearsnapshot"
-system(command)
+
 # Creating snapshots
-command = "nodetool snapshot -t {}".format(args.snapshotname)
-rc = system(command)
-if rc == 0:
-    print("Snapshot taken.")
-    copy()
-    print("Making a tarball: {}.tar.gz".format(args.snapshotname))
-    command = "cd {} && tar -czvf {}/{}.tar.gz *".format(tmpdir, args.tardirectory, args.snapshotname)
+if not args.disablesnapshot:
+    # Cleaning all old snapshots
+    command = "nodetool clearsnapshot"
     system(command)
-    # Cleaning up backup directory
-    rmtree(tmpdir)
-    print("Cassandra backup completed and stored in {}/{}.tar.gz".format(args.tardirectory, args.snapshotname))
+    # Taking new snapshot
+    command = "nodetool snapshot -t {}".format(args.snapshotname)
+    rc = system(command)
+    if rc != 0:
+        print("Backup failed")
+        exit(1)
+    print("Snapshot taken.")
+
+# Copying the snapshot to proper folder structure
+copy()
+# Creating tarball
+print("Making a tarball: {}.tar.gz".format(args.snapshotname))
+command = "cd {} && tar --remove-files -czvf {}/{}.tar.gz *".format(tmpdir, args.tardirectory, args.snapshotname)
+rc = system(command)
+if rc != 0:
+    print("Creation of tar failed")
+    exit(1)
+# Cleaning up backup directory
+rmtree(tmpdir)
+print("Cassandra backup completed and stored in {}/{}.tar.gz".format(args.tardirectory, args.snapshotname))
+