The Rise of the Data Streamhouse

Introduction to the Data Streamhouse and a new perspective on data streaming

September 16, 2024

Before founding Kadeck, I worked for over 10 years as a freelance software architect for leading companies in Germany. I specialized early on in data streaming—long before Apache Kafka became popular.

From the start, data streaming fascinated me. To me, it’s a brilliant way to view the digital world, as it perfectly mirrors the real world. It’s like a conveyor belt: instead of constantly running back and forth to gather materials, a high-speed conveyor connects all aspects of a company. There’s something majestic, almost philosophical, about it—everything is in flow.

It’s only a matter of time before data streaming replaces existing communication methods and takes over much of the communication between software and hardware.

Data streaming hasn’t yet reached its full potential, despite some industry experts placing it in the "early majority" phase of the technology adoption lifecycle. These experts reduce data streaming to its purely technical function, failing to recognize the profound impact it will have on the global economy.

The Problem

Data streaming is already being utilized by many pioneers across the globe today. It’s no longer just used in traditional real-time scenarios. Instead, businesses are discovering additional benefits, such as the ability to break down rigid and complex data infrastructures within companies and the potential to enable high levels of automation.

Yet, the benefits are overshadowed by a harsh reality that many businesses have already painfully realized: Data streaming remains extremely complex and highly technical. This makes it difficult to manage and has led to the criticism that it's too disconnected from tangible business value.

During my time as a freelancer, I witnessed countless technologies come and go. At the same time, I saw how the technology stack within companies kept growing.

In the final years of my freelance career, it became increasingly clear that businesses are facing serious challenges. It’s becoming harder for them to manage this technology stack. Sometimes it’s a lack of resources, other times it's budget, expertise, or time. But one thing is certain: missing technologies are not the problem.

This results in technology becoming a burden and slowing down business growth. Data streaming is not exempt from this criticism.

As the CEO of a deep-tech startup, I share the excitement for technology and the joy of programming. However, what truly drives me is seeing how our solutions help people and businesses move forward. This should be the goal for all of us.

The problem is, sometimes the love for technology gets in the way. People lose sight of what really matters for the business and end up building tech for tech’s sake instead of delivering real value.

Moreover, there is a near-axiomatic belief in our industry that every company must become a software company.

Because of this mindset, many data streaming companies focus solely on technical products, optimizing them with exceptional precision. Many new products promise faster speeds, lower latencies, or cost reductions.

These are outstanding accomplishments, and I’d like to extend my utmost respect to all the developers who have made the data streaming ecosystem so rich and diverse.

However, technical excellence alone is not enough to drive a technology breakthrough and make it accessible to a broader audience. A crucial additional component is required: real business value.

Up to this point, no solution existed that bridged the gap between data streaming and business, translating its benefits into tangible business value. To achieve real business value, technical obstacles must be removed. In doing so, it’s essential not to hinder the powerful technologies within this dynamic ecosystem, but rather to integrate them thoughtfully, making them accessible to a wider user base.

Without such a solution, data streaming will continue to lag behind traditional data infrastructures and risks remaining a niche technology.

The Search

In 2019, we set out to find the perfect solution, which led to the founding of Kadeck. Our strategy, divided into multiple phases, initially focused on integrating all the essential tools to simplify the development, testing, and operation of Apache Kafka infrastructures and applications. From the very first version of Kadeck, we were able to make Apache Kafka more accessible and user-friendly for our users.

While sales and marketing were not our primary focus in this phase, we quickly became the fastest-growing tool for Apache Kafka. Our revenue has grown solely through inbound inquiries—all of our customers were gained through word of mouth, which is quite rare in our industry.

After the initial release, we turned our attention to the second phase of our strategy: creating a comprehensive data streaming solution that unlocks the business value of data streaming for companies. Our mission is to make data streaming accessible across enterprises.

To this end, we closely examined the current state of data infrastructure in modern enterprises.

The Status Quo

Data cloud warehouses and data lakes are well-established concepts. They offer numerous advantages: they are excellent for analytical workloads, provide comprehensive data management, and include a unified governance layer. Moreover, they make it easy to connect various data sources.

However, these solutions stem from the traditional data world and are not designed for data streaming. In data streaming, data flows continuously, making the processing, management of data pipelines, and handling of datasets in motion central concerns. At the same time, real-time analysis is just as crucial. The challenge, therefore, is to unify operational and analytical workloads in a single solution.

Data warehouses also tend to create data silos, which goes against our vision. We strive for seamless, high-speed data flow across the entire organization, where data accessibility is key to driving success.

Since we believe that solutions should expand a company’s freedom, not limit it, we also need to combine two seemingly opposing approaches: the easy, rapid development of data applications without technical complexity and the ability to leverage the entire modern data streaming stack for maximum technical flexibility. How can these two approaches be combined into a single solution? And what does this mean for the future of data streaming?

The Data Streamhouse

The Data Streamhouse is a native data streaming solution that combines operational workloads with the strengths of a data warehouse built for the data streaming era. To drive real business impact, we focus on three central elements: delivering advanced, real-time analytics and insights, facilitating the rapid development of automated processes and pipelines, and ensuring data accessibility across the organization.

These three pillars, combined with a robust governance framework, are at the heart of our vision: a full-scale data streaming strategy for enterprises – a high-speed production line for data. This is not just about incremental change; we believe this represents a revolutionary transformation for the entire organization. Think of it as the difference between the early industrial factories and the giga-factories of today.

But the Data Streamhouse doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is designed to integrate with your existing systems and the broader data streaming ecosystem. It is also critical that it connects seamlessly to your data warehouses and databases to ensure data accessibility.

In addition to the rapid development of pipelines and data apps using SQL, Python, and JavaScript under industry best practices, the Data Streamhouse supports continuous advanced analytics for real-time insights.

Tens of thousands of developers use Kadeck every day, leveraging it to build, test, and monitor data streaming applications across a wide range of technologies—from Apache Flink to Kafka Streams, and even the foundational Consumer/Producer API. Kadeck’s capabilities cover the entire modern data streaming tech stack.

We have extended Kadeck’s capabilities and integrated them into the Data Streamhouse. Companies now have the freedom to choose: they can either use the simple SQL-based development in the new Streaming Lab or dive into the technical depth of the rich data streaming ecosystem when necessary.

A significant challenge in the fragmented data streaming stack is governance and compliance. Ensuring company-wide data accessibility and breaking down data silos require security and compliance without hampering users’ ability to access the data they need.

That’s why we designed a centralized governance layer within the Data Streamhouse to simplify what has traditionally been a complex, manual process.

The Data Streamhouse, in both cloud (BYOC) and on-prem deployments, is now available for selected enterprises. You can register here for consultation and early access.

Outlook

Data streaming is much more than just a technology or a new architectural approach. We believe that data streaming is a fundamental pillar for driving a more efficient economy. It is a transformational shift that will enable companies to automate at scale, delivering real business value.

Through the Data Streamhouse, we provide companies with the tools to significantly enhance their operational efficiency and agility—much like the evolution from the early days of industrial production to today’s giga-factories.

It is time to rethink the outdated belief that all companies must evolve into software companies. Instead, businesses must deepen their expertise and competitive differentiation through automation and data-driven systems, with solutions that enable this transformation without being burdened by unnecessary technological complexity.

Companies that rely on a technology stack similar to that of a cloud software company will ultimately be left behind by competitors who adopt solutions that deliver faster business value and require less complexity.

It is essential to us that flexibility and openness are never sacrificed. Only through an open ecosystem can organizations fully leverage the most effective tools for their specific needs. Kadeck embodies this belief, and the Data Streamhouse is the next evolution of this principle.

By presenting the rationale that led us to create the Data Streamhouse, we aim to not only provide a blueprint for the data-streaming industry but also to drive the global recognition this ecosystem deserves.

I am convinced that the Data Streamhouse will elevate the entire data-streaming ecosystem. Together, we can unlock a future defined by greater efficiency and innovation.

To Our Clients

Our clients include some of the most powerful Global 500 companies across various industries that are now benefiting from our expanded product portfolio.

For highly technical enterprises, we will continue to provide Kadeck. But for others, those who wish to focus on their unique strengths while still owning the freedom to innovate on their terms, we’ve created the Data Streamhouse - a new solution that defines a completely new category in the industry.

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I want to personally thank those who have supported us in our beliefs, vision, and along this journey.

The Data Streamhouse marks the beginning of something far greater than just a new chapter for our company. It’s the inception of a profound shift, one that will redefine how organizations across the world engage with data in real time.

Sincerely, 
Benjamin Buick  
Chief Executive Officer & Founder

The Rise of the Data Streamhouse

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