Confluent Uses AWS Service Ready Designations to Give Customers Confidence That Their Data is Protected

AWS Partner Confluent is relying on its AWS Service Ready designations to meet the security needs of customers in highly regulated industries. By demonstrating its validated AWS technology expertise, Confluent is helping customers increase data protection, enhance data analytics, and drive business growth.

Confluent, a scalable and highly secure service, is based on the concept of data in motion. Data in motion refers to a continuous supply of real-time event streams and real-time stream processing, designed to power the data-driven backend operations and rich front-end experiences required by many businesses to succeed in today’s competitive market. “Our goal is to set data in motion and allow any company in the world to use our platform to transform its business and build next generation applications,” says Chris Matta, Field Chief Technology Officer and Principal Solutions Engineer for Confluent. 

Built by the original creators of the Apache Kafka open-source platform for streaming high performance data pipelines or analytics applications, Confluent brings Kafka to the cloud by connecting it to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company’s Confluent Cloud solution enables customers to focus on application development instead of managing Kafka.

Confluent has continued to grow its partnership with AWS and now offers its Confluent Cloud solution powered by Apache Kafka on AWS Marketplace. “Our customers have unique requirements, and AWS offers native services to meet those needs,” says Joseph Morais, Cloud Partner Solutions Architect at Confluent. 

Recently, Confluent wanted to respond to customers who sought enhanced security. For example, the company’s financial services and healthcare customers work in highly regulated industries and manage sensitive customer data. “Previously, you could use the internet or a virtual private cloud to access our service, and neither was ideal for security-conscious organizations,” says Matta. To address these challenges, Confluent began supporting AWS PrivateLink, a native service which provides connectivity between Amazon Virtual Private Clouds and on-premises networks without the risk of data exfiltration. AWS PrivateLink enhances security by decoupling customers’ networks from the Confluent network and enforcing one-way connection establishment. 

By integrating AWS PrivateLink, Confluent helps customers get up and running quickly on Confluent Cloud. “We were seeing up to a dozen new AWS PrivateLink endpoints every week,” says Morais. This prompted Confluent to earn an AWS Service Ready designation for AWS PrivateLink, which demonstrates that Confluent Cloud has passed technical validations for architecture and AWS best practices. “By achieving the AWS Service Ready designation, we received recognition from AWS for the hard work our engineering teams completed,” says Morais.

By achieving the AWS PrivateLink Ready designation, Confluent gives customers in regulated industries like financial services and healthcare organizations more confidence in their data. “Security teams at large banks obsess over the possibility of data moving into an unauthorized environment,” Matta says. “Using AWS PrivateLink shuts down that risk because Confluent can provide access to our service without the customer having to give us access to their network.”

Confluent can also give customers more confidence in their Confluent Cloud implementation. “It’s one thing to say you support AWS PrivateLink, but it’s another to have a designation that says AWS verifies we have properly implemented it,” says Morais. 

Confluent continues to expand its partnership with AWS. Recently, Confluent achieved an AWS Service Ready designation for Amazon Redshift, a cloud data warehouse. As a result, its customers have better visibility into their legacy data. “We offer an Amazon Redshift Ready connector that integrates into customers’ analytics portfolios,” Morais says. “Customers now have a way to take a global network, aggregate all their data through Confluent, and then analyze it through Amazon Redshift." Additionally, Confluent was awarded an AWS Service Ready designation for AWS Outposts, an IT-as-a-service platform that companies use to host cloud environments on premises. “We were able to test all our automation and deployment for our on-premises product and validate that it works across the board,” says Morais.

Confluent plans to drive business growth and innovation by continuing its partnership with AWS. “Our business is growing every month because of our work with AWS,” says Sunil Patil, Staff Product Manager for Confluent. “By partnering with AWS, we can leverage advanced technology and innovation solutions to offer enhance value to our customers.”