A distributed shared log storage system employs an adapter that translates Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for a big data application to APIs of the distributed shared log storage system. An instance of an adapter is configured for different big data applications in accordance with a profile thereof, so that the big data applications can take on a variety of added characteristics to enhance the application and/or to improve the performance of the application. Included in the added characteristics are global or local ordering of operations, replication of operations according to different replication models, making the operations atomic and caching.