Confluent Launches OEM Program to Boost Partner Data Streaming Capabilities

Confluent Launches OEM Program to Help Partners Quickly and Confidently Grow Their Business with Data Streaming

Infosys, Mindgate Solutions, and Alibaba Cloud join as Confluent's OEM program launch partners to deliver cutting-edge solutions to clients worldwide MSPs, CSPs, and ISVs can rapidly unlock new revenue streams with the industry's leading data streaming platform integrated into their customer offerings Confluent, Inc., the data streaming pioneer, today announced the Confluent OEM Program. The new program for managed service providers (MSPs), cloud service providers (CSPs), and independent software vendors (ISVs) makes it easy to launch and enhance customer offerings with a complete data streaming platform for Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink®. With license to globally redistribute or embed Confluent's enterprise-grade platform, partners can bring real-time products and Kafka offerings to market faster and easily monetize customer demand for data streaming with limited risk. The program makes data streaming a high-margin part of the business with expert implementation guidance and certification to help partners launch enterprise-ready offerings; flexible commercial terms that match the ways partners sell; and ongoing technical support to ensure long-term customer success. "As data-driven technologies like GenAI become essential to enterprise operations, conversation has shifted from 'if' or 'when' a business will need data streaming to 'what's the fastest, most cost-effective way to get started?'" said Kamal Brar, Senior Vice President, Worldwide ISV and APAC, Confluent. "We help our partners unlock new revenue streams by meeting the growing demand for real-time data within every region they serve. Confluent offers the fastest route to delivering enterprise-grade data streaming, enabling partners to accelerate service delivery, reduce support costs, and minimize overall complexity and risk." The need for real-time data has cemented data streaming as a critical business requirement. According to ISG Software Research, "by 2026, more than three-quarters of enterprises' standard information architectures will include streaming data and event processing." To meet this need, teams often turn to popular open source technologies like Kafka and Flink. However, building and maintaining open source software, especially at scale, quickly becomes prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. On average, self-managing Kafka takes businesses more than two years to reach production scale, with ongoing platform development and operational costs exceeding millions of dollars per year. Over time, solutions built with open source Kafka and Flink consume more and more engineering resources, which impacts a business' ability to focus on differentiation and maintain a competitive advantage. Grow faster with enterprise-grade data streaming The Confluent OEM Program alleviates the burdens of self-managing open source technologies while going far beyond just Kafka and Flink. MSPs and CSPs can easily deliver a complete data streaming platform through Confluent, providing a hassle-free solution for unlocking more customer projects across AI, real-time analytics, application modernization and more. ISVs can embed Confluent within their products or applications to cost-effectively power modern customer experiences fueled by real-time data. Confluent simplifies data streaming by eliminating the operational complexities of open source deployments, accelerating delivery times, and ensuring customer success through ongoing expert support. Secure, governed data streams can be available wherever needed -- on premises, at the edge, and in the cloud. OEM Program benefits include: Design review and development support - Build your data streaming offering with architectural guidance and hands-on development support from Confluent's team with over 1 million Kafka development hours logged. Speed to market - Accelerate time to value with a complete, ready-to-use data streaming platform including 120+ Kafka connectors, Flink stream processing, enterprise-grade security and data quality controls, and cloud-based monitoring. Confluent certification - Launch confidently with proof that your product or data streaming offering is approved and backed by the industry leader. Flexible commercial terms - Package customer-facing offerings easily with commercial terms that match the way you sell. Expert technical support - Bring committer-led Kafka and Flink support to your business and easily handle any customer question or issue. Hear from Confluent's Launch Partners "Businesses undergoing digital transformations rely on Infosys for technologies that meet rigorous enterprise requirements and ensure long-term success," said Dinesh Rao, EVP and Co-Head of Delivery, Infosys. "By leveraging Confluent's advanced data streaming solutions, we can complete customer projects more efficiently, with minimized risk and reduced costs. Our customers benefit from comprehensive platforms that include pre-built connectors, native stream processing, data quality controls, enterprise-grade security, governance, monitoring, and more." "Customer demand for data streaming has skyrocketed as businesses strive for a competitive edge through application modernization, real-time analytics, and AI," said Dongliang Guo, Vice President of International Business, Head of International Products and Solutions, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. "With Confluent, we were able to deliver a complete, enterprise-grade Apache Kafka managed service on Alibaba Cloud with minimal time and engineering effort. Partnering with Confluent, the leading Kafka experts, allowed us to quickly unlock new business potential in Asia Pacific while lessening the costs and complications typically associated with launching a new service." "Processing over 7 billion real-time payment transactions per month for leading financial institutions worldwide comes with exceptional performance expectations," said George Sam, Co-founder and Business Head, Mindgate Solutions Pvt. Ltd. "By leveraging Apache Kafka from Confluent, we ensure our RTP UPI payment platform can handle the increasing demand for real-time transactions with unparalleled efficiency and reliability. Through this partnership, we reaffirm our dedication to delivering innovative, scalable, and resilient payment solutions to clients globally, highlighting our commitment to providing cutting-edge, robust solutions worldwide." Become an OEM Partner today! Visit www.confluent.io/oem for more details on how to join and the impact it can have on your business. Additional resources Read the blog for more details on the Confluent OEM Program. Learn more about Confluent's partner programs. See how Confluent is helping its customers transform their businesses. About Confluent Confluent is the data streaming platform that is pioneering a fundamentally new category of data infrastructure that sets data in motion. Confluent's cloud-native offering is the foundational platform for data in motion -- designed to be the intelligent connective tissue enabling real-time data, from multiple sources, to constantly stream across the organization. With Confluent, organizations can meet the new business imperative of delivering rich, digital front-end customer experiences and transitioning to sophisticated, real-time, software-driven backend operations. To learn more, please visit www.confluent.io.

Confluent Launches OEM Program To Help ISV And MSP Partners Build Data Streaming Into Their Offerings

Confluent also discloses investments in two regional systems integration partners who are developing leading-edge data integration and migration expertise and practices. Data streaming tech developer Confluent has launched an OEM channel program to recruit managed service providers, cloud service providers and independent software vendors to build the Confluent platform within their software and service offerings. The new program provides MSPs, CSPs and ISVs with a license to globally redistribute or embed Confluent's technology, along with offering design review and development assistance, product certification, technical support and other benefits. Confluent also said today that it has invested in two regional systems integrators, Onibex and Psyncopate, that provide data integration and system migration services around the Confluent data streaming platform. The values of the investments were not disclosed. "It's a way of expanding the partnerships. We want to increase our joint pipeline," said Confluent channel chief Paul Mac Farland, in an interview with CRN. "We cannot capture the $60 billion data streaming market alone." [Related: Meeting The Exploding Demand For Data: The 2024 CRN Big Data 100] Confluent, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., develops its data streaming platform based on the open-source Apache Kafka technology that was originally developed by Confluent's founders. The company, which is holding its Current 2024 conference in Austin, Texas, this week, offers the Confluent software platform and the Confluent Cloud service. Over the last year the company has been expanding its channel efforts including launching the Connect with Confluent program to help software partners integrate their products with the Confluent platform, the Accelerate with Confluent and Build with Confluent programs for systems integrator partners, and an initiative to enlist and assist partners who help customers upgrade from Kafka to Confluent. This latest program is geared toward cloud service providers and MSPs that have been developing streaming services based on the open-source Apache Kafka, and ISVs developing software that embed either Kafka or Confluent's free Community edition within their products. But products and services based on open-source Kafka lack the scalability and clustering capabilities that many large businesses and organizations need today - especially with the growing wave of AI and generative AI applications increasing demand for real-time data for mission-critical applications, said Kamal Brar (pictured), Confluent senior vice president, Worldwide ISV and APAC, in an interview with CRN. "When [businesses and organizations] scale these systems, they become challenged with the operational burden. They become challenged with the engineering complexity of truly building a cluster service that is going to scale across thousands and maybe tens of thousands of servers. The complexity of managing those services is difficult," Brar said. And the product update and security patching cycles for open-source products like Kafka may not be robust enough for many enterprise customers, Brar added. "All of those challenges make it very difficult to provide a true enterprise product that is going to be world class," he said. "And so that's the big shift we're seeing on both on the CSP/MSP side and on the ISV side." Brar said Confluent already has a number of ISV partners whose software is integrated with the Confluent platform. But he said the company is launching this new program to meet the unique engineering needs of OEM and MSP partners. "Over the last two years, we've seen that demand really accelerate, as we put some of those partnerships in place, and it's now come to a point where it's a significant part of our business," Brar said. "I think that's why we've decided to create a separate team focused on this." One such partner is software developer Mindgate Solutions. "Processing over 7 billion real-time payment transactions per month for leading financial institutions worldwide comes with exceptional performance expectations," said George Sam, Mindgate co-founder and business head, in a statement. Sam said that by leveraging Confluent, "we ensure our RTP UPI [real-time payments unified payments interface] platform can handle the increasing demand for real-time transactions with unparalleled efficiency and reliability. Through this partnership, we reaffirm our dedication to delivering innovative, scalable, and resilient payment solutions to clients globally, highlighting our commitment to providing cutting-edge, robust solutions worldwide." Through the new OEM program, which is now operational, partners can develop and bring to market real-time products and Kafka offerings to market more quickly and monetize demand for data streaming with limited risk, according to the company. The program offers design review, development support and expertise to help partners build data streaming into their software and services. It also provides Confluent certifications that back the partners' data streaming offerings, flexible commercial terms to match the way partners sell, and technical support to help partners with customer inquiries. "II think there's a huge opportunity across the board for this market to continue to grow," Brar said. In the press release the company cited data from ISG Software research that predicted that by 2026 more than three-quarters of standard IT infrastructure within enterprises will include streaming data and event processing. Confluent said its investments in Onibex and Psyncopate, both members of the Build with Confluent channel program, are designed to help meet rising demand for services around the Confluent data streaming platform - specifically data integration and legacy system migration projects. Onibex, based in The Woodlands, Texas, provides its proprietary One Connect solution and related services that leverage the Confluent system to connect SAP system data with other operational systems in real time. Psyncopate, headquartered in Brea, Calif., provides services to migrate customers from TIBCO legacy messaging systems to the Confluent platform. Mac Farland said SAP and TIBCO systems have some of the most valuable data sets in the world" and Onibex and Psyncopate have developed expertise and intellectual property to leverage those data assets. With the investments Confluent expects that both companies will continue to develop their intellectual property and use cases, make their offerings more repeatable, and scale up their real-time data practices. "By connecting Confluent and SAP using 'One Connect,' organizations can easily adopt event-driven architectures to decouple system integration and democratize data across the enterprise, enabling real-time user experiences and decision-making," said Gustavo Estrada, Onibex CEO and chief architect, in a statement. "Confluent's investment will go toward expanding our 'One Connect' platform, making seamless data integration between SAP and Confluent Cloud within hours a reality." "As we help leading organizations modernize their legacy data infrastructure into real-time data streaming, we've strategically deepened our partnership with Confluent," said Tony Giang, Psyncopate founder and principal technology wtrategist, also in a statement. "This funding will enable us to expand our pipeline of data streaming migration projects while continuing to deliver seamless integration services to our customers." Mac Farland said Confluent's sales representatives are also expected to work with those at Onibex and Psyncopate to pursue joint opportunities. The channel chief said he does not believe Confluence's investment in the two system integrators creates channel conflict between the vendor and its partner base, noting that Onibex and Psyncopate offer very specific expertise that other partners, including larger systems integrators, could work with. "We think it's additive and beneficial to the broader partner community," Mac Farland said. "It's beneficial across the board - including to the customer." He said Confluent wants "the bulk" of customer services to come from partners and that the vendor has no interest in growing a services practice.