Kafka gets SQL with KSQL
Apache Kafka is a key component in data pipeline architectures when it comes to ingesting data. Confluent, the commercial entity behind Kafka, wants to leverage this position to become a platform for the enterprise and today is announcing a milestone on the road to ubiquity: SQL.
Streaming is hot. The demand for real-time data processing is rising, and streaming vendors are proliferating and competing. Apache Kafka is a key component in many data pipeline architectures, mostly due to its ability to ingest streaming data from a variety of sources in real time.
Confluent, the commercial entity behind Kafka, has the ambition to leverage this position to become a platform of choice for real-time application development in the enterprise. On the road to implementing this vision, Kafka has expanded its reach to include more than data ingestion — most notably, processing.
In this process, the overlap with other platforms is growing and Confluent seems set on adding features that will enable Kafka to stand out. The world’s biggest Kafka Summit taking place in San Francisco today marks the advent of such a feature: Kafka SQL, or KSQL, is a SQL implementation enabling Kafka users to process their streaming data using SQL rather than Java or Python APIs.
Neha Narkhede, Confluent co-founder and CTO, is the one who shared the news with the world in her keynote. Going beyond the announcement, Narkhede discussed KSQL with ZDNet.