Apache Kafka is the world’s most used data streaming software and has existed for more than a decade. But despite that, people are still experiencing several newer experiences and use cases for it. But Apache Kafka is not the only data streaming software in existence. There are several more. Several event streaming software in the market are available with many advanced features like Gradle build, API designer, pre-built connectors including custom connectors, and other essential tools available without a different paywall.
Read below to find out about some of the must-have picks for Kafka Cloud Services:
1. Event Streaming Applications
The Apache Kafka Managed Service provides a single-stop solution for all Event Streaming applications. It is because it includes the necessary tools your team may require of developers to create various event streaming applications and others, so there’s no need to go much further.
Client application protocol interface (API), Kafka Connect, Schema Registry, Kafka Streams, and many more related functionality and features are included in Kafka as a Service.
However, if you so wish, you can use other cloud services like Confluent to integrate it with your Kafka and then manage it with various other integrated services. Services like Postgres, MySQL, Oracle cloud storage (GCP Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, and others), cloud functions (AWS Lambda, Google Cloud, and Azure Functions), Snowflake, and others are also available here.
2. More comprehensive Operation
Apache Kafka and its features can be used by developers on other platforms. All the popular tools and frameworks are interoperable too. But if you use Confluent Cloud, you will get access to full-fledged Kafka clusters. It will help you save time since the code Developers wrote is the same code used for Kafka clusters running On-Premises therefore, no new tools or frameworks are required. As a developer, you might understand how frustrating it is to rewrite and integrate a code with other services. So having the same code across different services certainly helps.
3. Bigger Professional Support
As an Apache Kafka developer, you might use various Kafka-managed services. But did you know that there is far more extensive community support known as ‘Kafka specialists’ to whom you can submit support requests, ask technical questions regarding the fundamental technology, and get around specific parameters to improve Kafka’s performance?
Confluent Cloud is one of the top providers of Apache Kafka support. It supports various computer programming languages such as Java, C/C++, Go,.NET, Python, and others with native clients.
4. No Vendor Lock-In
These days, with so many different application management, you ought to be more careful about switching your managed services from one cloud provider to another. You will find many other cloud providers in Apache Kafka, which should technically help you de-risk your application management.
The various cloud provider services work with major cloud providers like Google Cloud Platform and AWS and ensure that your experience as an Apache Kafka developer is consistent across all of them. You can operate using any of these Cloud providers, and they may use several clusters on various providers simultaneously.
5. Apache Kafka as a Service Using Amazon’s AWS
Amazon offers a Managed Streaming Service for Apache Kafka known as MSK.This service is exclusively available for its Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers. AWS Developers can now install Kafka on their systems and build streaming pipeline applications using advanced technologies like Spark Streaming in just a few moments. You don’t have to worry about maintaining Kafka brokers, Zookeeper, or anything else, so they can focus on developing streaming pipelines.
6. Google Cloud Apache Kafka Service
Google Cloud offers your company a fully managed Apache Kafka as a Service. It allows you to focus on developing applications rather than cluster management. Using this, you can analyze data in real-time and at a vast scale. You can stream data to Cloud Machine Learning Engine and TensorFlow, all of Google Cloud’s extensive data offerings.
You can also create applications that are triggered by events. You can combine Google Cloud Functions, App Engine, and Kubernetes with Confluent Cloud pub or sub-messaging services.
You can also provide a robust connection to the Cloud.
Key Benefits of Apache Kafka:
- Prohibits system crash: Kafka helps solve the slow, multi-step data processing that takes place through external source systems. It acts as an intermediary by sending data to a target source in real-time after collecting it from an external source. It helps save time and increase speed, and because Kafka has its servers, systems won’t crash due to any data load.
- Reduces multiple integration requirements: With Kafka, developers do not need to write different code integrations for data collection. Only one integration is required with the Kafka program, one for the producing system and one for the receiving system.
- Low latency: Kafka decouples data streams and allows you to consume data in real-time as soon as it is published. It reduces the time for data delivery and load, which enables the handling of high data volumes conveniently.
- Data accessibility: Because of data centralization in Kafka, it is easier for all team members to access data at any given time. For example, security teams can access the data to verify its security; the operations team can access it to see how things are functioning, and much more. Kafka makes data availability more convenient.
Conclusion
There is a reason Apache Kafka has become one of the most popular real-time data streaming platforms. It provides seamless integration of code and flow of data without much hassle. It is cost-effective to use, saves time, and increases accessibility for all those who need real-time data. Kafka becomes more powerful and functional when it is further integrated with different Kafka cloud services. While there may be many more alternatives to Apache Kafka in the market for the purpose of real-time data streaming, it is necessary that you choose the one which suits your business’s unique needs better. It will help improve operations, bring about seamless processing, and increase productivity too.
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