Streaming data service fully managed and operated by the team that created Apache Kafka delivers the freedom to scale without vendor lock in
NEW YORK – May 8, 2017 (Kafka Summit NYC) – Confluent, provider of the leading streaming platform based on Apache Kafka®, today announced Confluent CloudTM, a fully managed streaming data service that unleashes developer velocity. With a simple, resilient, secure and performant service, developers can focus on what matters most: building revolutionary streaming applications with Apache Kafka, while the Confluent team handles Kafka operations.
Confluent Platform is a more complete distribution of Apache Kafka intended for large-scale production environments. It improves Apache Kafka by expanding its integration capabilities, adding tools to optimize and manage Kafka clusters, and ensuring the streams are secure. With the introduction of Confluent Cloud, developers now have the option to build and run applications in the cloud knowing that the team who originally created Kafka are maintaining and managing the Kafka clusters.
“Confluent Cloud is a major milestone in our journey of increasing the reach of a Kafka-based streaming platform for developers everywhere, be it on-premises or in the cloud. Now, developers can focus on building applications and driving business value from streaming, instead of worrying about service continuity,” said Neha Narkhede, co-founder and CTO at Confluent. “This is a big step toward realizing our vision of Confluent’s streaming platform at the heart of every company.”
Key Features
Access to the Kafka Ecosystem – Unlike proprietary streaming services from cloud providers, Confluent Cloud offers the same open-source Apache Kafka APIs that developers are familiar with, making it easy to leverage clients, connectors and tools supported by the Kafka and Confluent communities.
Cloud Optionality – In a recent survey of over 350 Apache Kafka users, 52% are using Kafka in the public cloud. In fact, nearly one-third (32%) of respondents who use Kafka in the cloud are running at least 6 applications with Kafka. Confluent Cloud is vendor agnostic, so you can “lift and shift” your Kafka infrastructure from any location into — or out of — any cloud.
Unleash Developer Velocity – Confluent Cloud is a hosted streaming data service that unleashes developer productivity. It takes away the operational burden of running Kafka and lets developers focus on building streaming applications. Simple, resilient, secure and performant, teams can focus on what matters most – building the company.
Reduce the Ops Burden – Troubleshooting or building distributed systems is difficult, operating them at scale is even harder. Kafka is no exception. As cluster usage grows, failures are more likely. With Confluent Cloud, it’s easy to get Kafka up and running.
“The founders of Confluent created Apache Kafka at LinkedIn and ran it as a managed service internally for the several thousand users there,” said Jay Kreps, co-founder and CEO at Confluent. “We’re incredibly excited to use that expertise now as we make Kafka available as a scalable, fully managed service to help developers move faster with streaming data.”
Availability
Confluent Cloud is currently available via an early access program. At its initial release, Confluent Cloud will include all the capabilities that make Kafka the leading streaming technology, from its performance to its unique retention and replay capabilities. The service will initially be available in Amazon Web Services, with support for Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to be added in the future. To join the early access program or sign up for updates, visit www.confluent.io/confluent-cloud.
Pricing
Confluent Cloud is elastically priced based on usage. Pricing is determined based on throughput, retention and availability. Contact Confluent for more details.
Resources
About Confluent
Confluent, founded by the original creators of open source Apache Kafka®, provides the only streaming platform that enables enterprises to maximize the value of data. Confluent Platform empowers leaders in industries such as retail, logistics, manufacturing, financial services, technology and media, move data from isolated systems into a real-time data pipeline where they can act on it immediately. Backed by Benchmark, Index Ventures and Sequoia, Confluent is based in Palo Alto, California. To learn more, please visit www.confluent.io. Download Confluent Open Source at www.confluent.io/download.
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