Current 2024: No clear vision for the future of Confluent?

On Thursday, the Current 2024 conference headed to Austin, one of the fastest-growing technology hubs in the States. For startup founders specializing in Kafka and real-time architecture, Current is usually one of the more significant events of the year. It’s positioned as a way to learn from experts at Confluent and some of the world’s top companies—LinkedIn, Uber, Fidelity, and Amazon Web Services—and be a part of the future of data.

But I’ve been going to Confluent hosted conferences for years, and this time seemed different. Although I respect what they’ve done for years in the data streaming space, Confluent lacked a clear mission or vision moving forward. Think of a cruise ship without a captain or a map of where they are heading. I got the sense that they’re struggling to find a path as vendors in the space take up bigger and bigger parts of what used to be Confluent’s core business. Even the keynotes, this time around, seemed to lack the foresight and vision of past Current events.

So what’s wrong? What’s going on? Is data streaming doomed to lose its way? Well, no. As data leaders try to integrate GenAI into their operations, we’re seeing more speakers talk about experimenting with its capabilities and creating AI-enhanced apps and copilots. But although we’re still seeing the classic Kafka training and technical foundation talks at Current, make no mistake—the overall vision needs to evolve.

Then you have the breakout events: one of my favourite parts of the conference.

This year, they were honestly one of the strongest parts of the daily schedule. Real-time platform engineering. Debezium vs. the world. How to simplify Kafka. They got down to the nitty-gritty details and provided practical tips—but again, there was that sense that nobody knew where Confluent was headed. Part of the reason for this is the debacle that came out the week after Warpstream, with Confluent doubling its prices.

Now, Current still has good speakers and practical technical sessions (along with good food trucks). We heard from Mark Cho, Staff Software Engineer at Netflix; Robert Englander, Lead Principal Engineer at Atlassian; Hugo Guerrero, Senior Principal Developer Advocate at Red Hat; Adam Tybor, Chief Data and AI Architect for Accenture Global, and many other leaders who are focused on making data more strategic and useful where they work.

But right now, there’s a big unspoken truth: enterprise customers are moving away from Confluent, whether because of a lack of trust or because they see it as overly expensive. Smaller vendors are starting to have more sway in the market, and as companies can increasingly work with contract and freelance Kafka providers, the company that started it all is starting to lose its grip on the market.

That being said, Current remains one of the only conferences that brings together a large group of data streaming leaders in combination with people who are doing hands-on work in their respective industries, from finance to media and business. It’s a great place to stay on the edge of the work being done in Kafka and Flink, and—as more companies start to rely on fractional Kafka experts—it’s a great place to meet talented and driven people who need OSO’s services.

So I may be down on the keynotes, but I’m excited about the future. After all, data engineering and software are changing radically and rapidly. For OSO to stay at the top of its game, we need to incorporate the latest generation of Confluent tools into our repertoire and ensure that for the clients we serve, we’re one of the best. As for next year’s event? We’ll have to see. Hopefully, Confluent can turn the game around and start charting a clear path for Current 2025.

Sion Smith is the co-founder and CTO of OSO, a consulting company based in the United Kingdom that provides companies with on-demand Kafka experts.