KSQL is the streaming SQL engine for Apache Kafka, and it is currently available as a fully-managed service on the Confluent Cloud Platform for all its customers on usage-based billing plans. In a recent blog post, Confluent announced the availability of Confluent Cloud KSQL.
KSQL was one of the available capabilities on the first preview of the release of the Confluent Cloud Platform. Now it is production-ready and available for Confluent Cloud customers as part of the streaming platform. With KSQL, the company expands Confluent Cloud as Derek Nelson, senior product manager at Confluent, states in the announcement blog post:
Confluent Cloud KSQL eliminates the innate complexities of operating infrastructure in production. We take care of running production-grade infrastructure at scale while you focus on solving business problems with KSQL. Transformations, stream-to-stream joins, aggregations, and data enrichment can all be accomplished using KSQL with just a few lines of SQL.
Bart Kersteter, a system engineer at Confluentinc, said in a tweet:
KSQL is great for writing streaming data apps, especially for non-java programmers. It is now fully supported and available in Confluent Cloud.
Apache Kafka can be a choice for powering data pipelines, and KSQL can simplify the transforming of data within the pipeline and land into other systems. KSQL queries are run on the KSQL Server engine, which also does the processing, reads, and writes of data to- and from the Kafka cluster. Through the KSQL UI in the Confluent Control Center, users can interactively interact with KSQL Engine through the REST API. They can, according to Nelson:
Create streams and tables with a few clicks or submit continuous SQL queries through the query editor while browsing the schemas of the various streams and tables your queries target.
Source: https://docs.confluent.io/current/ksql/docs/index.html
Confluent Cloud provides a production-ready environment in minutes on cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Service (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The company made the Apache Kafka streaming platform available on AWS since 2017, and in the recent months also on the GCP- and Azure marketplace. Moreover, it enhances its Cloud Platform with KSQL as Dan Rosanova, senior group product manager at Confluentinc, told InfoQ:
ksqlDB is really a new kind of database that has been purpose-built for stream processing applications. We see ksqlDB as an integral service rounding out our cloud offering as a complete streaming platform, beyond Kafka, enabling end to end stream processing workloads. It compliments our Connect service as well which enables streaming connectivity to and from many services and platforms. These services all compose together to provide users an event streaming SaaS that they can use to build and run sophisticated and complete modern applications.
More details on Confluent Cloud KSQL are available on the documentation page, and new customers wanting to start with Confluent Cloud KSQL can sign up for Confluent Cloud, get $50 of free usage each month for the first three months, and leverage the QuickStart guide. Furthermore, the availability of Confluent Cloud on the various public cloud platforms and features are listed on the supported features page.
