Get Kafka-Nated Episode 6

Aiven

Dec 2, 2025

Join Hugh Evans as he chats with Ben Gamble, Field CTO at Ververica and one of the original creators of Apache Flink®, about the magic of combining Kafka and Flink for modern streaming analytics.

In this episode, you’ll discover:
🔷 Why Kafka and Flink are better together, and how Ververica and Aiven are driving this integration forward
🔷 Real-world use cases where Kafka + Flink power streaming data pipelines
🔷 Technical considerations and pitfalls, including offsets, checkpoints, parallelism, and topic design
🔷 How to design robust architectures that handle backpressure and maintain exactly-once guarantees
🔷 The latest developments in Kafka-Flink integration and what’s coming next in the streaming ecosystem

Whether you’re building real-time analytics, event-driven systems, or scalable data pipelines, this episode is packed with insights from someone at the forefront of streaming technology.

Timestamps:

0:00 – Intro: Coffee & Streaming Deep Dive

0:08 – Today’s focus: CFKA + Flink.

0:46 – Meet the Expert: Ben Gamble

2:54 – Flink Origins & Open-Source Stewardship

5:52 – What is Flink? Understanding the Engine

10:29 – Kafka + Flink: Integration Tips & Pitfalls

17:52 – Building Well-Architected Flink + Kafka Systems

21:01 – The Future of Streaming & Event Processing

26:19 – Is CFKA + Flink Right for You?

30:38 – Real-World Success: From Mainframes to Fast Streaming

31:04 – Tips for Developers & Community Resources