diff --git a/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessor.java b/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessor.java
index be7c97128..46a481612 100644
--- a/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessor.java
+++ b/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessor.java
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ public class CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessor implements BeanFactoryPost
 				.addConstructorArgReference(converterBeanName) //
 				.getBeanDefinition();
 
-		BeanDefinitionHolder template = new BeanDefinitionHolder(beanDefinition, DefaultBeanNames.TEMPLATE);
+		BeanDefinitionHolder template = new BeanDefinitionHolder(beanDefinition, DefaultBeanNames.DATA_TEMPLATE);
 		registry.registerBeanDefinition(template.getBeanName(), template.getBeanDefinition());
 
 		return template;
diff --git a/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/xml/CassandraTemplateParser.java b/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/xml/CassandraTemplateParser.java
index 2394eb154..d57d6963c 100644
--- a/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/xml/CassandraTemplateParser.java
+++ b/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/xml/CassandraTemplateParser.java
@@ -15,11 +15,13 @@
  */
 package org.springframework.data.cassandra.config.xml;
 
+import static org.springframework.cassandra.config.xml.ParsingUtils.addOptionalPropertyReference;
+
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinition;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionBuilder;
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.AbstractSingleBeanDefinitionParser;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.ParserContext;
-import org.springframework.cassandra.config.xml.CassandraCqlTemplateParser;
 import org.springframework.data.cassandra.config.CassandraTemplateFactoryBean;
 import org.springframework.data.cassandra.config.DefaultBeanNames;
 import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
@@ -31,7 +33,7 @@ import org.w3c.dom.Element;
  * @author Matthew T. Adams
  * @author Mark Paluch
  */
-public class CassandraTemplateParser extends CassandraCqlTemplateParser {
+public class CassandraTemplateParser extends AbstractSingleBeanDefinitionParser {
 
 	/* (non-Javadoc)
 	 * @see org.springframework.cassandra.config.xml.CassandraCqlTemplateParser#getBeanClass(org.w3c.dom.Element)
@@ -48,9 +50,6 @@ public class CassandraTemplateParser extends CassandraCqlTemplateParser {
 	protected String resolveId(Element element, AbstractBeanDefinition definition, ParserContext parserContext)
 			throws BeanDefinitionStoreException {
 
-		// TODO: super.resolveId resolves always to a non-empty id because its fallback is DefaultCqlBeanNames.TEMPLATE.
-		// This also means that CassandraTemplate is exposed as bean named cqlTemplate. This should change with 2.0
-		// because 2.0 breaks up inheritance.
 		String id = super.resolveId(element, definition, parserContext);
 		return StringUtils.hasText(id) ? id : DefaultBeanNames.DATA_TEMPLATE;
 	}
@@ -65,14 +64,7 @@ public class CassandraTemplateParser extends CassandraCqlTemplateParser {
 
 		super.doParse(element, parserContext, builder);
 
-		parseConverterAttribute(element, parserContext, builder);
-	}
-
-	protected void parseConverterAttribute(Element element, ParserContext parserContext, BeanDefinitionBuilder builder) {
-		String converterRef = element.getAttribute("cassandra-converter-ref");
-		if (!StringUtils.hasText(converterRef)) {
-			converterRef = DefaultBeanNames.CONVERTER;
-		}
-		builder.addPropertyReference("converter", converterRef);
+		addOptionalPropertyReference(builder, "converter", element, "cassandra-converter-ref", DefaultBeanNames.CONVERTER);
+		addOptionalPropertyReference(builder, "session", element, "session-ref", DefaultBeanNames.SESSION);
 	}
 }
diff --git a/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/repository/config/CassandraRepositoryConfigurationExtension.java b/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/repository/config/CassandraRepositoryConfigurationExtension.java
index 9c26153ee..482bf91ff 100644
--- a/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/repository/config/CassandraRepositoryConfigurationExtension.java
+++ b/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/repository/config/CassandraRepositoryConfigurationExtension.java
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
 
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionBuilder;
-import org.springframework.cassandra.config.xml.DefaultCqlBeanNames;
 import org.springframework.cassandra.config.xml.ParsingUtils;
 import org.springframework.core.annotation.AnnotationAttributes;
 import org.springframework.data.cassandra.config.DefaultBeanNames;
@@ -78,9 +77,8 @@ public class CassandraRepositoryConfigurationExtension extends RepositoryConfigu
 
 		Element element = config.getElement();
 
-		// TODO: XML-based configuration uses a different bean name than Java config
 		ParsingUtils.addOptionalPropertyReference(builder, "cassandraTemplate", element, CASSANDRA_TEMPLATE_REF,
-				DefaultCqlBeanNames.TEMPLATE);
+				DefaultBeanNames.DATA_TEMPLATE);
 	}
 
 	/* (non-Javadoc)
diff --git a/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/repository/config/EnableCassandraRepositories.java b/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/repository/config/EnableCassandraRepositories.java
index 6d1159be9..8196a8ae1 100644
--- a/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/repository/config/EnableCassandraRepositories.java
+++ b/spring-data-cassandra/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/repository/config/EnableCassandraRepositories.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import java.lang.annotation.Target;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.FactoryBean;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan.Filter;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Import;
+import org.springframework.data.cassandra.config.DefaultBeanNames;
 import org.springframework.data.cassandra.core.CassandraTemplate;
 import org.springframework.data.cassandra.repository.support.CassandraRepositoryFactoryBean;
 import org.springframework.data.repository.config.DefaultRepositoryBaseClass;
@@ -120,7 +121,7 @@ public @interface EnableCassandraRepositories {
 
 	/**
 	 * Configures the name of the {@link CassandraTemplate} bean to be used with the repositories detected.
-	 * 
+	 * Defaults to {@link DefaultBeanNames#DATA_TEMPLATE}
 	 * @return
 	 */
 	String cassandraTemplateRef() default "cassandraTemplate";
diff --git a/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessorUnitTests.java b/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessorUnitTests.java
index 8728524e5..bdd281169 100644
--- a/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessorUnitTests.java
+++ b/spring-data-cassandra/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/cassandra/config/CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessorUnitTests.java
@@ -47,9 +47,9 @@ public class CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessorUnitTests {
 		context.load(CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessorUnitTests.class, "cluster-and-mock-session.xml");
 		context.refresh();
 
-		assertThat(context.getBeanNamesForType(CassandraOperations.class), hasItemInArray("cqlTemplate"));
-		assertThat(context.getBeanNamesForType(CassandraMappingContext.class), hasItemInArray("cassandraMapping"));
-		assertThat(context.getBeanNamesForType(CassandraConverter.class), hasItemInArray("cassandraConverter"));
+		assertThat(context.getBeanNamesForType(CassandraOperations.class), hasItemInArray(DefaultBeanNames.DATA_TEMPLATE));
+		assertThat(context.getBeanNamesForType(CassandraMappingContext.class), hasItemInArray(DefaultBeanNames.CONTEXT));
+		assertThat(context.getBeanNamesForType(CassandraConverter.class), hasItemInArray(DefaultBeanNames.CONVERTER));
 	}
 
 	@Test // DATACASS-290
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ public class CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessorUnitTests {
 		context.load(CassandraMappingBeanFactoryPostProcessorUnitTests.class, "mock-session-mapping-converter.xml");
 		context.refresh();
 
-		assertThat(context.getBeanNamesForType(CassandraOperations.class), hasItemInArray("cqlTemplate"));
+		assertThat(context.getBeanNamesForType(CassandraOperations.class), hasItemInArray(DefaultBeanNames.DATA_TEMPLATE));
 	}
 
 	@Test // DATACASS-290