Instaclustr adds Kafka Connect to Managed Open Source Data Solutions

Instaclustr announced the general availability of Instaclustr Managed Kafka Connect. This newest addition to the Instaclustr Managed Platform enables seamless data movement between Apache Kafka and other data systems at scale. Kafka Connect joins Apache Kafka, Apache Cassandra, Apache Spark, and Elasticsearch as another fast, proven, resilient, and highly flexible open source data technology expertly managed and supported by Instaclustr.

Kafka Connect – an open source component of the Apache Kafka project – facilitates integrations between Kafka clusters and external data sources and sinks. The solution leverages reusable open source Kafka Connectors that function as plugins between Kafka and other systems. By doing so, Kafka Connect solves the core challenges inherent to otherwise developing linearly-scalable streaming data integrators between Kafka and all other systems.

Instaclustr is now offering Kafka Connect as a fully managed service, because the solution often requires significant operational proficiency to be efficiently deployed and optimized at scale. Instaclustr Managed Kafka Connect delivers that deep expertise, enabling customers to rapidly build Kafka integrations to requisite data sources and reliably scale their streaming data capabilities. Backed by Instaclustr’s hands-on management, businesses can instead focus resources on building their applications while Instaclustr handles the complexities of Kafka Connect customization and deployment. Kafka Connect adds to the data-layer technologies Instaclustr delivers in their pure open source versions – giving Instaclustr customers an advantageous alternative to “open core” solutions that increase license costs and promote vendor lock-in.

“Interest in Kafka Connect has been growing quickly, and deservedly so,” said Ben Slater, Chief Product Officer, Instaclustr. “Through our extensive preview release of managed Kafka Connect, we continue to see how much value this technology can provide enterprises seeking the most reliable and scalable way to connect Kafka clusters to external data sources and sinks. We’re excited to now launch the general availability of Instaclustr Managed Kafka Connect, and look forward to helping new and existing customers leverage Kafka that much more efficiently and effectively.”

Using Instaclustr, Kafka Connect clusters can be created – and Kafka integrations can begin getting built – within minutes. Instaclustr includes a collection of pre-built connectors for popular data stores, including for AWS S3. A Bring-Your-Own Kafka Connectors (BYO Connectors) option is also offered that enables enterprises to more quickly deploy custom Kafka Connectors. This allows enterprises to build bespoke integrations and/or experiment with new integrations not yet created. Customers can deploy any Kafka Connector – including any open source, proprietary-owned, or third-party connector (with appropriate use licensing) – directly onto their dedicated Kafka Connect clusters.

Instaclustr Managed Kafka Connect delivers everything enterprises will need to take full advantage of real-time data integration between Kafka and other data sources:

• Automated provisioning and deployment: Instaclustr provides automated provisioning of managed Kafka Connect through the Instaclustr Management Console, REST APIs, or the Instaclustr Terraform provider.
   
• Flexible deployment: Customers have the choice to deploy a Kafka Connect cluster and link it to an Instaclustr Managed Kafka cluster, or deploy to a Kafka cluster running outside of the Instaclustr platform. There’s also a choice to deploy a Kafka Connect cluster in its own dedicated VPC or within the VPC of the associated Kafka cluster.
   
• Run in your provider account or ours: Instaclustr Managed Kafka Connect is supported on AWS, Azure, and GCP (available in a subsequent release after GA) – or in the customer’s own on-prem data center. Customers can run it in Instaclustr’s cloud provider account with a fixed, infrastructure-inclusive cost, or use their own cloud provider account and pay a management fee per node.
   
• Availability SLAs: Instaclustr offers a 99.99% availability SLA when using an Instaclustr-managed Kafka cluster.
   
• Monitoring and alerting: Customers can access key metrics through Instaclustr’s Management Console and REST APIs, and can also retrieve monitoring metrics in a format compatible with the Prometheus monitoring system. Alerting is in place to enable Instaclustr’s team to proactively identify any irregularities.
   
• Security: Instaclustr Managed Kafka Connect is SOC 2 certified, featuring a client-to-cluster secured connection via TLS, node-to-node encryption, firewall configuration, and other enterprise-level security features.
   
• 24x7 expert support: Instaclustr customers have 24x7 access to technical support, with hands-on expertise managing large-scale distributed systems.
   
• Pre-built connectors: An AWS S3 connector (available in the GA release) and a Cassandra connector and an Elasticsearch connector (which will be added in subsequent releases).
   
• Custom connectors: Customers can deploy any connector onto their dedicated Kafka cluster (appropriate use license is required).
   
• Access to connector logs: Access logs generated by Connectors are available for simplified debugging.