Open source cloud data platform Aiven has announced the general availability of Aiven for Apache Flink.
This fully-managed service can be deployed in the cloud of a user’s choice and across multiple cloud vendors including AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. There is a Flink automation layer, which is a built-in management layer that Aiven claims eliminates operational overhead. Aiven says that scaling clusters up or down, closing out Flink jobs, and other operational activities are automated through the Aiven console. The service also supports automatic versioning and previewing of the resulting pipeline output for Flink applications.
Aiven for Apache Flink also includes a self-service Flink SQL suite with a redesigned interface for developing event-driven applications and streaming analytics with data pipeline prototyping, validation, and deployment capabilities. Aiven says SQL drives more efficiency in these processes, as it enables performant computations on both bounded and unbounded data streams. Flink SQL has a wide set of SQL functions, Aiven notes, as well as extensive support from the Apache Flink community.
(Source: Aiven)
Use cases for Aiven for Apache Flink include real-time alerts for ad optimizations, fraud detection, and inventory management. For streaming analytics, example use cases include user locations, IT security, trend monitoring, and A/B testing. The service can also be used for real-time data transformation for situations requiring enriching, aggregating, or filtering data, such as GDPR compliance, error management, and quality monitoring.
Apache Flink has recently garnered significant attention, and a total of $55 million in venture capital was invested into startups building companies around Flink in 2022. Confluent recently purchased leading Apache Flink contributor Immerok for a rumored $100 million. Aiven attributes this spending to the niche that Flink inhabits, saying that “over the past year, the ability for companies to analyze data in real time has transformed from a ‘nice-to-have’, to a ‘must-have’ tool to provide rich and contextual experiences to their customers and end users.”
The company previously announced another managed service, Aiven for Kafka, in December after acquiring Kafkawize, a centralized governance layer on top of Kafka. With the addition of Aiven for Apache Flink, the company says it now offers a complete open source streaming ecosystem that complements and integrates with Aiven for Apache Kafka, satisfying many real-time data application scenarios. Integrating the two services allows customers to access the same SLA support team for both services from the same vendor.
The Aiven open source streaming ecosystem. (Source: Aiven)
“Having a production-grade Apache Flink offering is a game changer for real-time data processing use cases, driving business insights. Aiven for Apache Flink enables developer productivity with the best open source technologies and makes developers’ lives easier,” said Jonah Kowall, VP of product management at Aiven, in a statement. “Aiven for Apache Flink is the glue and intelligence tying together our platform capabilities between Apache Kafka along with popular databases such as PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, and more integrations coming every week. Our experience brings a cloud streaming data infrastructure that is resilient, scalable, and can be easily migrated and managed across cloud vendors through the Aiven console. I am very excited about what the future of this service holds for our customers and the stream processing market in general, as more organizations harness the power of real-time data processing.”
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Five Drivers Behind the Rapid Rise of Apache Flink
Aiven Introduces an Open Source Streaming Ecosystem for Apache Kafka
Confluent to Develop Apache Flink Offering with Acquisition of Immerok
