Confluent Named Google Cloud Partner of the Year Amid Accelerating Partnership Momentum

This week in Las Vegas, Google is hosting their annual Google Cloud Next ʼ24 conference, bringing together leaders from across the IT industry to learn about and explore the newest innovations in and around the Google Cloud ecosystem.

Confluent is excited to be sponsoring and attending Next (visit us at booth #452) and highlighting some of the amazing capabilities that businesses unlock through the powerful combination of Google’s world-class data, analytics, and GenAI technology stack and Confluent’s industry-leading data streaming platform.

Read on for highlights of some of the progress we’re most excited about…

A shared vision and mission through our partnership

Confluent is thrilled to be named a 2024 Google Cloud Partner of the Year award winner in the category of “Technology – Data: Smart Analytics.” As a five-time Partner of the Year award winner, this recognition serves as a testament to our steadfast dedication to revolutionizing data connectivity and enabling organizations to harness real-time data to power business innovation.

Our collaboration with Google Cloud represents a shared vision to drive innovation and deliver tangible results for our customers. Together, we've embarked on a journey to provide organizations with seamless access to their data, enabling them to unlock valuable insights in real time. The Partner of the Year award is a testament to the dedication and hard work of our teams across sales, marketing, and engineering.

"In our journey to modernize our infrastructure, we evaluated options meticulously. With Google Cloud as our backbone, the decision to adopt Confluent was clear. Its comprehensive data streaming platform solidified our choice, with the ability to have connectors that link into physical deployments. Together, Google and Confluent empower us to navigate the complexities of data management with confidence."

— Josh LittleSun, Vice President, Delivery, Quarterhill

A foundation of deep technical integrations and innovation

The Confluent and Google partnership is grounded in deep technical differentiation, with a focus on driving innovation around customers’ usage of real-time data. Through our partnership with Google Cloud, organizations can effortlessly stream data into leading services such as BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL, Dataflow, and more. And by combining Confluent's leading-edge data streaming platform with Google Cloud's advanced AI solutions such as Vertex AI, companies can swiftly create and implement cutting-edge, real-time AI applications.

Here are a few examples of the great work that Confluent and Google have accomplished together over the last year:

• Last month at Kafka Summit London we announced the general availability (GA) of Confluent Cloud for Apache® Flink across all three major clouds, including Google Cloud. This means that customers can now experience Apache Kafka® and Flink as a unified, enterprise-grade platform to connect and process data in real time, wherever they need it.

• Confluent is deepening its alignment with Google's focus on extending Google Cloud’s infrastructure by offering services anywhere customers need it, including edge and on-premises environments. Through our collaboration with Google Cloud on its Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) solution, customers will be able to leverage Confluent's solutions for real-time data streaming in GDC deployments where and when their data is needed. Also, as part of the Google Cloud Ready – Distributed Cloud initiative, Confluent in partnership with Google Cloud will validate the Confluent Platform for GDC deployments, ensuring compatibility with edge or air-gapped use cases. When deployed in a GDC environment, customers, including those with regulated or highly sensitive data, can confidently run their essential software.

• In addition to the Cloud Ready designation for GDC, Confluent has also achieved the Cloud Ready designation for our fully managed connector integrations to BigQuery, AlloyDB, and Cloud SQL.

• Another key highlight was the launch of the fully managed BigQuery Sink V2 connector which offers improved efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility compared to its predecessor, helping companies streamline data ingestion to Google BigQuery.

• In addition, Confluent was a launch partner for the BigQuery Partner Center, a platform designed to help customers effortlessly create streaming data pipelines in BigQuery. This has opened up new possibilities for real-time insights and proactive decision making, with Google BigQuery featured prominently in Connect with Confluent, a program that makes it easier for Google customers to access and use real-time data streams.

• Google Cloud was also an inaugural launch partner for the Confluent Migration Accelerator, a tool designed to help companies migrate from any version of Apache Kafka or traditional messaging systems to Confluent. This collaboration has made it easier for organizations to transition to more efficient and effective data management systems.

Focus on making GenAI better with real-time data streaming

Specifically through the Data Streaming for AI initiative, Confluent leverages Google’s extensive AI partnerships to expedite the creation of real-time AI applications by organizations. As part of this initiative, Confluent has added support for coding with Duet AI for Developers, providing a rich set of coding examples and knowledge base articles to support best practices on Confluent products.

Also, during the Google Cloud Next conference, Confluent Field CTO, Will LaForest, will be joining Google and experts from Databricks, MongoDB, and Dataiku for an exclusive executive discussion on harnessing GenAI's transformative potential. During the discussion, attendees will learn strategies for integrating GenAI, addressing challenges, and building a future-proof, innovation-driven data culture.

And if that isn’t enough, over the past year, Confluent’s commitment to integrating with Google Cloud’s GenAI technologies has led to us being recognized as a distinguished early adopter partner within the AI Innovation Space at Google Cloud Next ʼ24. We’re one of the first 100 partners who have developed joint demos with Gemini or other cutting-edge GenAI technologies, so we’re excited to meet you at the conference and tell you more about this new development.

Learn more this week

If you haven't yet, we encourage you to explore the possibilities with Confluent and Google Cloud. 

• Visit us at booth #452 at Google Cloud Next ʼ24

• Learn about Flink and GenAI at our booth and watch a demo of our BigQuery V2 connector

• Watch the panel discussion Make Generative AI Work: Best Practices from Data Leaders

• Join Confluent and MongoDB at an exclusive Google Next networking event on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 — registration information here

• Sign up for a free trial of Confluent Cloud on Google Cloud Marketplace today—with $1,000 in Confluent credits awaiting you within 30 days, it's easier than ever to experience the potential of real-time data streaming

Together with Google Cloud, we’re on a quest to deliver elastic, resilient, and performant event streaming capabilities, allowing companies to unlock the full potential of all their data.