How do you consistently manage security, governance and discoverability when your Kafka clusters span on-premises data centers and various public cloud services? With many enterprises using hybrid cloud solutions for flexibility, cost savings and agility, this is a growing concern, as driving real-time data flows across multiple data centers and cloud providers can feel anything but straightforward.
But navigating the hybrid cloud doesn’t have to be difficult. Below, we’ll look at why the landscape is complex and how your business can benefit from cutting through the complexity. We’ll also show you how you can leverage the power of Tyk Streams to bridge the gap between on-premise and cloud-based Kafka clusters. Get ready to apply unified policies, expose events over standard web-friendly protocols and deliver a seamless experience to developers and consumers alike.
Why is the hybrid cloud landscape complex for Kafka?
There are several factors behind the complexity of the hybrid cloud landscape when you throw Kafka into the mix. First, there’s the issue of fragmented infrastructure. It’s not uncommon for enterprises to end up with multiple Kafka clusters, some running on-premises to comply with strict data regulations and others hosted in managed cloud services (such as AWS MSK, Azure Event Hubs for Kafka or Confluent Cloud).
These disparate environments introduce complexities around configuration, versioning, security and network connectivity. They also lead to the headache of divergent security and compliance models; on-prem Kafka deployments might follow strict corporate security guidelines, while cloud-based ones require IAM roles, VPCs, or region-specific controls. Reconciling these models to enforce uniform policies can be an operational nightmare, especially when you need to deliver consistent access patterns and governance rules.
The other issue is that operating Kafka across a hybrid cloud often leads to blind spots. It can be difficult to monitor, audit or trace the path of a message from an on-prem cluster to a cloud service. Without a central governance layer, you risk inconsistent security policies, complicated ACLs, and the absence of a holistic view of your data flows.
The real-world benefits of a hybrid cloud setup for Kafka
While a hybrid cloud Kafka architecture might seem challenging, it can also deliver a range of benefits and a whole heap of business value.
To put this in context, imagine a global retailer with physically distributed stores and an expanding e-commerce presence. By using Kafka on-prem, the business can process sales transactions in near real-time at each physical location’s data center, abiding by local regulations for data sovereignty. Add in cloud Kafka and the business can also handle global inventory updates, customer loyalty interactions and analytics pipelines hosted in a public cloud for scalability.
What that business now needs is the ability to unify its Kafka clusters and centralize its security and audit logging across all data feeds. Imagine if it could also expose inventory events as standard APIs to partner apps or franchise owners. And what if it could let data scientists subscribe directly to relevant sales events for real-time dashboards, via HTTP or SSE, without custom bridging. The retailer would be able to innovate faster and more consistently while keeping the complexities of a hybrid cloud environment under control.
Let’s take this imaginary scenario and turn it into a reality using Tyk Streams…
What is Tyk Streams?
Tyk Streams is an extension of the Tyk API management platform, purpose-built to handle asynchronous APIs and event-driven data. Think of it as the same Tyk you know, managing REST, GraphQL and more, but now seamlessly orchestrating Kafka streams too. Key capabilities include:
- Broker-agnostic configuration: Tyk Streams supports a variety of brokers (including Kafka) and surfaces their data as HTTP, WebSocket or SSE endpoints.
- Unified governance: Apply Tyk’s authentication, authorization, and rate-limiting policies to event data, regardless of whether it originates in the cloud or on-prem.
- Event format mediation: Transform or filter data on-the-fly (e.g., Avro to JSON), so consumers don’t need specialized libraries or extensive custom logic.
- Developer portal integration: Expose your streams in Tyk’s developer portal for easy discoverability and self-service onboarding, enabling both internal teams and external partners to quickly subscribe.
The benefits for hybrid cloud environments
Below is a simplified high-level architecture demonstrating how on-prem and cloud-based Kafka clusters can funnel data through Tyk Streams:
This approach delivers several crucial benefits:
Simplified network topology
By funneling data through Tyk Streams, you no longer require complex network peering arrangements or specialized client libraries in each environment. This is especially helpful when bridging multiple clouds and on-premises systems, allowing you to centralize your data plane with minimal friction.
Consistency in security and policies
With Tyk Streams providing a single governance model, instead of managing separate ACLs in on-prem Kafka and cloud-managed Kafka, you configure Tyk Streams once and apply it uniformly. As well as simplifying governance, this compliance-friendly approach means you can store Tyk’s audit logs in a persistent database, making it easier to track who accessed what data – vital for meeting regulatory standards.
Faster onboarding and innovation
Traditional approaches might require bridging services or specialized wrappers to expose Kafka data. Tyk Streams eliminates the need for these custom microservices, cutting development timelines significantly. Tyk’s self-serve portal also cuts out friction, enabling productivity to soar. Teams can explore available event streams in Tyk’s Developer Portal, request access and get to work instantly.
Scaling with your business
Tyk Streams is designed to handle high-throughput data scenarios while still maintaining strict performance and security requirements. Whether your volume grows on-prem or in the cloud, Tyk scales alongside your expanding event-driven needs.
Mapping out a hybrid cloud Kafka architecture with Tyk Streams
Now that we’ve established how much value your enterprise can gain by bringing a unifying layer to your hybrid cloud Kafka architecture, let’s look at how you can do so. It’s easier than you might think:
1. Connect Kafka clusters to Tyk
- Configure Tyk Streams with Kafka inputs to pull event data from both on-prem and cloud-based brokers.
- Each broker’s native capabilities (consumer groups, etc.) remain intact while Tyk Streams acts as an abstraction layer.
2. Apply consistent policies
- Within Tyk Streams, set up security (API keys, OAuth2), rate limits or message transformations.
- Whether an event flows from the on-prem cluster or a managed cloud service, you get a uniform approach to governance.
3. Expose data via standard protocols
- Tyk Streams surfaces event data as HTTP, WebSockets or SSE endpoints.
- Developers, no matter where they are, connect via standard APIs, drastically simplifying integration.
4. Publish via Tyk’s Developer Portal
- Document your streams in Tyk’s Developer Portal, enabling teams or external consumers to quickly discover, subscribe and integrate.
- Set up self-service workflows so that teams can request access keys or see usage analytics in one place.
Practical steps to get started
You can get started with Tyk Streams here, implementing it as follows:
- Identify your Kafka clusters: Audit your environment and map out which clusters are on-prem, which are in the cloud and any region-specific brokers, along with existing ACLs, user groups and protocols.
- Deploy or leverage existing Tyk: If you already run Tyk Gateway and Tyk Dashboard, simply enable Tyk Streams. Alternatively, if you’re new to Tyk, check out our documentation for a straightforward setup path.
- Configure Kafka inputs: In the Tyk Dashboard, set up a new Stream. Select Kafka as the input source, specifying connection details, topics, consumer groups and any relevant broker configurations.
- Set up output protocol and policies: Choose an output channel (HTTP, SSE or WebSocket) and configure any transformations or filtering rules. Apply Tyk’s authentication (API Keys, OAuth2 or JWT), rate-limits and usage quotas if needed.
- Publish to Tyk’s Developer Portal: Provide a clear description, usage guidelines and any relevant subscription instructions to encourage teams or external partners to self-serve.
- Monitor and iterate: Leverage Tyk’s telemetry features to track real-time performance, spot bottlenecks and ensure policy compliance. You can then iterate on your configuration, adding new streams, refining transformations or expanding usage as your hybrid cloud grows.
Empower your hybrid Kafka strategy
As organizations increasingly adopt hybrid cloud strategies, Kafka remains a powerful backbone for real-time data. The challenge is to streamline governance, simplify integrations and maintain a single point of control, no matter where your brokers reside.
With the unifying approach of Tyk Streams, you can standardize how you expose Kafka events, integrate security and governance and scale your real-time data capabilities across on-prem and cloud with minimal friction.
Ready to explore the possibilities? Dive into the Tyk Streams quick start guide and discover how easily you can transform a patchwork of Kafka deployments into a cohesive, enterprise-grade, event-native API ecosystem.
