We’re thrilled to announce that Lightstreamer has joined the Connect with Confluent technology partner program. This partnership brings the power of real-time data streaming from Apache Kafka® to web and mobile applications, ensuring seamless data delivery from Confluent Cloud through Lightstreamer’s proven last-mile streaming capabilities. Our customers now benefit from enhanced, secure data flows that unlock real-time application potential, providing new avenues for customer engagement and operational efficiency.
“We’re excited to collaborate with Confluent to drive forward real-time data streaming innovations. The Lightstreamer Confluent Integration brings the power of event-driven architecture to the ‘last mile,’ where critical, timely information can now seamlessly reach web and mobile users across various network conditions.”
— Alessandro Alinone, CEO, Lightstreamer
Expanding the data streaming ecosystem together with Confluent
Connect with Confluent brings fully managed data streams directly to organizations through a single integration to the cloud-native and complete data streaming platform, Confluent Cloud. It’s now easier than ever for organizations to stream any data to web and mobile applications with Lightstreamer and a fully managed Apache Kafka ® service that spans hybrid, multi-cloud, and on-premises environments. In addition, the program supercharges partners’ go-to-market efforts with access to Confluent engineering, sales, and marketing resources. This ensures customer success at every stage from onboarding through technical support.
Building real-time applications with the Lightstreamer Confluent Integration
The Lightstreamer Confluent Integration empowers organizations to create scalable, responsive applications where real-time data is paramount. Lightstreamer’s proven track record with industry leaders such as NASA, Sony, and Morgan Stanley reflects its capability to support diverse, mission-critical applications.
Kafka was not designed for direct internet access, particularly for last mile delivery—the critical network segment that extends beyond enterprise boundaries and edges (LAN or WAN) to reach end users. Last-mile integration is essential for delivering real-time Kafka data to mobile, web, and desktop applications, addressing challenges beyond Kafka’s typical scope. Lightstreamer serves as an intelligent proxy for last-mile streaming, with key benefits including:
- Efficient last-mile delivery: Lightstreamer navigates limitations from firewalls, proxies, and variable internet bandwidth, ensuring seamless connectivity.
- Intelligent Streaming: Lightstreamer dynamically adjusts data flow to each user’s network, handling packet loss without buffering delays for smooth real-time updates, regardless of connection quality.
- Massive scalability: Built to support millions of concurrent connections, Lightstreamer ensures low-latency data broadcasting even under extreme loads, backed by proven benchmarks.
- Server-side filtering: With server-side filtering, only relevant Kafka messages are delivered to each client based on custom criteria, reducing client load and optimizing bandwidth usage.
- Flexible web protocols: Supports WebSockets with HTTP fallbacks for dependable data delivery.
- True streaming mode: Fully asynchronous streaming pushes updates directly, eliminating the need for client-side polling.
This integration unlocks significant use cases, from NASA’s real-time telemetry for the ISS to Sony’s multiscreen engagement for live TV events and Morgan Stanley’s market data distribution. With flexible, adaptive capabilities, the Lightstreamer Confluent Integration meets evolving business demands across industries.
A powerful and flexible architecture
The Lightstreamer Confluent Integration is powered by the Lightstreamer Broker—the world’s leading last-mile data delivery platform—and the Lightstreamer Kafka Connector, which can operate as both a direct Kafka Client and a Kafka Connect Connector. This setup fully replaces the REST Proxy, reducing resource consumption on both client and server sides, resulting in a more efficient, responsive experience.
Lightstreamer’s comprehensive and versatile client APIs make it easy to integrate real-time Kafka data across any frontend environment, supporting a wide range of platforms, technologies, and programming languages. Whether for web, mobile, or desktop applications, Lightstreamer enables seamless real-time functionality in any user-facing application.
When to use the Lightstreamer Confluent Integration
Adopting the Lightstreamer Confluent Integration is the optimal choice if any one of the following scenarios applies:
- Real-time data needs to flow from Kafka to web browsers and mobile apps.
- Real-time data must traverse proxies and firewalls to reach end-users.
- Real-time data is delivered over the internet.
- Client applications are connected through unreliable networks or are on the move.
- Client applications need to receive only specific data from a Kafka topic, filtered by application logic rather than topic partitioning.
- Real-time data must scale to potentially large user bases, from hundreds to millions.
- To overcome the many limitations of the REST Proxy.
If even one of these requirements is critical to your setup, Lightstreamer’s integration with Confluent ensures reliable, efficient, and scalable real-time data delivery.
Getting started
Ready to explore the Lightstreamer Confluent Integration? Get started here and set up a working demo with Lightstreamer and Confluent Cloud in just minutes. Our step-by-step guide walks you through enabling powerful real-time data delivery for your applications with ease.
Not yet a Confluent customer? Start your free trial of Confluent Cloud today. New signups receive $400 to spend during their first 30 days—no credit card required.
Alessandro Alinone
