Kafka has dominated data streaming for years, but cloud-native platforms (Snowflake, Redshift) now ingest data directly, batch-streaming convergence (Iceberg, lakehouses) is reshaping architectures, and cost-efficient alternatives (WarpStream, Redpanda) are cutting costs by 10x. This article explores whether Kafka can adapt—or if the streaming ecosystem is moving beyond it.
Kafka has dominated data streaming for years, but cloud-native platforms (Snowflake, Redshift) now ingest data directly, batch-streaming convergence (Iceberg, lakehouses) is reshaping architectures, and cost-efficient alternatives (WarpStream, Redpanda) are cutting costs by 10x. This article explores whether Kafka can adapt—or if the streaming ecosystem is moving beyond it.