Serverless Data Streaming on Azure Cloud with Apache Kafka Event Hubs Confluent Cloud for OneLake and Microsoft Fabric
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When to Choose Apache Kafka vs. Azure Event Hubs vs. Confluent Cloud for a Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse

Choosing between Apache Kafka, Azure Event Hubs, and Confluent Cloud for data streaming is critical when building a Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse. Each option caters to different needs, and this blog post will guide you in selecting the right data streaming solution for your use case.
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Real-Time AI ML Model Inference Predictive AI and Generative AI with Data Streaming using Apache Kafka and Flink
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Real-Time Model Inference with Apache Kafka and Flink for Predictive AI and GenAI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are transforming business operations by enabling systems to learn from data and make intelligent decisions for predictive and generative AI use cases. Two essential components of AI/ML are model training and inference. This blog post explores how data streaming with Apache Kafka and Flink enhances the performance and reliability of model predictions. Whether for real-time fraud detection, smart customer service applications or predictive maintenance, understanding the value of data streaming for model inference is crucial for leveraging AI/ML effectively.
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Apache Kafka Deployment Options - Serverless vs Self-Managed vs BYOC Bring Your Own Cloud
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Deployment Options for Apache Kafka: Self-Managed, Fully-Managed / Serverless and BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud)

BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) is an emerging deployment model for organizations looking to maintain greater control over their cloud environments. Unlike traditional SaaS models, BYOC allows businesses to host applications within their own VPCs to provide enhanced data privacy, security, and compliance. This approach leverages existing cloud infrastructure. It offers more flexibility for custom configurations, particularly for companies with stringent security needs. In the data streaming sector around Apache Kafka, BYOC is changing how platforms are deployed. Organizations get more control and adaptability for various use cases. But it is clearly NOT the right choice for everyone!
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Unified Commerce with Data Streaming using Apache Kafka and Flink at the Edge and in the Cloud
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Unified Commerce in Retail and eCommerce with Apache Kafka and Flink for Real-Time Customer 360

Delivering a seamless and personalized customer experience across all touchpoints is essential for staying competitive in today’s rapidly evolving retail and eCommerce landscape. Unified commerce integrates all sales channels and backend systems into a single platform to ensure real-time consistency in customer interactions, inventory management, and order fulfillment. This blog post explores how Apache Kafka and Flink can be pivotal in achieving real-time Customer 360 in the unified commerce ecosystem and how it differs from traditional omnichannel approaches.
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Multi-Cloud Replication in Real-Time with Apache Kafka and Cluster Linking
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Multi-Cloud Replication in Real-Time with Apache Kafka and Cluster Linking

Multiple Apache Kafka clusters are the norm; not an exception anymore. Hybrid integration and multi-cloud replication for migration or disaster recovery are common use cases. This blog post explores a real-world success story from financial services around the transition of a large traditional bank from on-premise data centers into the public cloud for multi-cloud data sharing between AWS and Azure.
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One Apache Kafka Cluster Type Does NOT Fit All Use Cases
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Apache Kafka Cluster Type Deployment Strategies

Organizations start their data streaming adoption with a single Apache Kafka cluster to deploy the first use cases. The need for group-wide data governance and security but different SLAs, latency, and infrastructure requirements introduce new Kafka clusters. Multiple Kafka clusters are the norm, not an exception. Use cases include hybrid integration, aggregation, migration, and disaster recovery. This blog post explores real-world success stories and cluster strategies for different Kafka deployments across industries.
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Apache Iceberg Open Table Format for Data Lake Lakehouse Streaming wtih Kafka Flink Databricks Snowflake AWS GCP Azure
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Apache Iceberg – The Open Table Format for Lakehouse AND Data Streaming

An open table format framework like Apache Iceberg is essential in the enterprise architecture to ensure reliable data management and sharing, seamless schema evolution, efficient handling of large-scale datasets and cost-efficient storage. This blog post explores market trends, adoption of table format frameworks like Iceberg, Hudi, Paimon, Delta Lake and XTable, and the product strategy of leading vendors of data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks (Apache Spark), Confluent (Apache Kafka / Flink), Amazon Athena and Google BigQuery.
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Energy Trading with Apache Kafka and Flink at Uniper ReAlto Powerledger
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Energy Trading with Apache Kafka and Flink

Energy trading and data streaming are connected because real-time data helps traders make better decisions in the fast-moving energy markets. This data includes things like price changes, supply and demand, smart IoT meters and sensors, and weather, which help traders react quickly and plan effectively. As a result, data streaming with Apache Kafka and Apache Flink makes the market clearer, speeds up information sharing, and improves forecasting and risk management. This blog post explores the use cases and architectures for scalable and reliable real-time energy trading, including real-world deployments from Uniper, re.alto and Powerledger.
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The Shift Left Architecture
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The Shift Left Architecture – From Batch and Lakehouse to Real-Time Data Products with Data Streaming

Data integration is a hard challenge in every enterprise. Batch processing and Reverse ETL are common practices in a data warehouse, data lake or lakehouse. Data inconsistency, high compute cost, and stale information are the consequences. This blog post introduces a new design pattern to solve these problems: The Shift Left Architecture enables a data mesh with real-time data products to unify transactional and analytical workloads with Apache Kafka, Flink and Iceberg. Consistent information is handled with streaming processing or ingested into Snowflake, Databricks, Google BigQuery, or any other analytics / AI platform to increase flexibility, reduce cost and enable a data-driven company culture with faster time-to-market building innovative software applications.
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Data Streaming with Apache Kafka for Industrial IoT in the Automotive Industry at Brose
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Apache Kafka in Manufacturing at Automotive Supplier Brose for Industrial IoT Use Cases

Data streaming unifies OT/IT workloads by connecting information from sensors, PLCs, robotics and other manufacturing systems at the edge with business applications and the big data analytics world in the cloud. This blog post explores how the global automotive supplier Brose deploys a hybrid industrial IoT architecture using Apache Kafka in combination with Eclipse Kura, OPC-UA, MuleSoft and SAP.
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