European Airline: 25 Kafka Clusters to Cloud

Executive Summary

With Conduktor, this European airline securely migrated 25 Kafka clusters and 170 applications from their on-premises environment to Confluent Cloud over the course of nine months. They now have 2,000 self-service users across their organization with stringent security and governance standards.

This airline serves over 100,000 passengers daily across more than 1,000 flights, generating massive streams of data critical for operations and customer experience.

For the past seven years, this airline used Confluent to manage their on-prem Kafka clusters, leveraging point-to-point messaging and log ingestion to deliver personalized customer experiences. But as demand for real-time data surged and new use cases emerged, managing 25 Kafka clusters across three data centers became a major challenge.

Challenge

To address the growing complexity and operational burden, the airline decided to migrate its Kafka infrastructure to Confluent Cloud by the end of 2024. However:

• Strict security protocols required end-to-end encryption before data could reach the cloud
• Scalable governance was needed to enforce consistent security across their architecture post-migration

Solution

In just nine months, Conduktor helped the airline seamlessly migrate to Confluent Cloud, ensuring a more scalable, secure, and flexible data environment.

Simplifying compliance with rigid security requirements

Conduktor ensured full encryption for Kafka data in motion and at rest, enabling the airline to complete their migration while adhering to strict security protocols—and laying the foundation for long-term compliance.

Consolidating Kafka operations for improved efficiency

Beyond migration, Conduktor empowers the airline to implement centralized governance across their new Kafka architecture. Platform engineers can now monitor, troubleshoot, and secure streaming data in a single place.

By standardizing these processes, the airline reduced duplication, eliminated data silos, and guaranteed data consistency and integrity.

Driving operational reliability and agility

With improved reliability and visibility for streaming data, the airline minimizes downtime and reduces failure rates. This results in shorter mean times to detection and resolution (MTTD/R), more reliable development cycles, and a deepened commitment to data-driven innovation.

Empowering data innovation across the organization

By adopting a "shift left" approach, the airline accelerates deployment of new use cases, giving users self-service access to streaming data while maintaining robust control. This balance of speed and governance drives faster time to value without sacrificing compliance.

Results

Together, Conduktor, Confluent, and this airline have set the stage for future growth. As they explore using Kafka for partner communication, enhancing customer experiences, and strengthening core operations, they're equipped to transform their business model.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a Kafka cloud migration take with Conduktor?

This European airline migrated 25 Kafka clusters and 170 applications from on-premises to Confluent Cloud in just nine months with Conduktor's support.

What security features does Conduktor provide for cloud migrations?

Conduktor ensures full encryption for Kafka data in motion and at rest, enabling migrations that adhere to strict security protocols while establishing long-term compliance foundations.

How does Conduktor support Confluent Cloud?

Conduktor provides centralized governance, monitoring, troubleshooting, and security management across Confluent Cloud deployments, empowering 2,000+ self-service users in this case.