Redpanda updates event data streaming cloud platform
The event data streaming vendor rebuilt its cloud system using technology acquired in April, providing a new user console and interface to let organizations use real-time data.
Redpanda on Tuesday updated its event data streaming cloud platform with the general availability of its next generation cloud service.
The 2019 startup has had a busy year in 2022, raising $50 million in February and acquiring privately held CloudHut in April. CloudHut developed the open source Kowl user interface for Apache Kafka, which has now been integrated as a key part of the Redpanda cloud update.
The vendor also used technology from CloudHut to build the new Redpanda Console, which provides users with more control and visibility into event data streaming pipelines.
Redpanda's platform competes against several event data streaming technologies, including platforms from Confluent, the lead contributor to Kafka, as well as StreamNative, RisingWave and Hazelcast. Ease of use and the ability to quickly get up and running is a common challenge with event data streaming technologies that vendors are all aiming to address.
Event data streaming brings more insight to users
Among the users or Redpanda's cloud is The Hotels Network, based in Barcelona, which provides technology and data to hotels to help with online bookings.
The company's data platform was initially driven by batch processes that collected and shared data. The company realized it needed real-time event streaming data but didn't want to manage an event streaming platform on its own. It decided on Redpanda, said Jordi Miró Bruix, CTO of The Hotels Network.
"The speed of development and the performance of our all our applications are much better with Redpanda," Bruix said. "There are things that we can do now with real-time data that we could not do the past."
For example, Bruix noted that hotels are now preparing for the upcoming Black Friday sales period. With real-time data, it's possible to provide more accurate and timely information. Another example is if a social media influencer posts something about a given hotel; with real-time data, The Hotels Network can help hotels quickly build out personalization options and campaigns to attract users.
The Hotels Network has also been testing the new Redpanda Console as part of the cloud platform to provide visibility into the event data streams.
"The new console gives me deeper, more granular, and better monitoring," Bruix said.
Redpanda cloud gives a new look to event data streaming
The vendor previously had only a private cloud offering. With the launch of the new cloud, Redpanda lets users run in their own virtual private cloud or on dedicated clusters. Both provide a fully managed service running on Redpanda resources on either AWS or Google Cloud Platform.
The speed of development and the performance of our all our applications are much better with Redpanda. There are things that we can do now with real time data that we could not do the past.
Jordi Miró BruixCTO, The Hotels Network
The acquisition of CloudHut in April was the trigger that inspired him to rebuild the Redpanda cloud with a new user interface and overall experience for managing event data streams, said Alex Gallego, founder and CTO of Redpanda.
"Technology from the CloudHut acquisition is now powering the main user interface for all of our cloud users," Gallego said.
Redpanda also rebranded the CloudHut Kowl open source project as the Redpanda Console. The new console lets users write JavaScript or Typescript code as a programmatic way to filter event streaming data. The filters and the queries can help users identify performance and reliability problems with data streams.
The Redpanda Console now is built for developers. The vendor has not yet built a version of the console geared toward business users, though that's on the product roadmap, Gallego said.
