Cut Kafka sprawl and enable secure external sharing with IBM Event Automation
As organizations embrace real-time data, Apache Kafka has become the backbone of event-driven architectures, but without proper governance, it brings sprawl and complexity. Teams often create duplicate topics for each use case, leading to Kafka sprawl, rising costs and poor data reuse. This lack of strategy results in operational overhead, limited visibility and slower innovation.
To stay competitive, organizations must move fast, collaborate broadly and manage Kafka efficiently. If unmanaged, Kafka becomes a bottleneck instead of a driver of change.
IBM Event Automation solves this with Event Endpoint Management and its Kafka-Native Event Gateway. This capability allows teams to securely expose, manage and transform Kafka topics both internally and externally without losing control. By using IBM Event Automation, businesses reduce overhead, streamline operations, and support digital transformation with better governance and lower cost. The result is stronger alignment with strategic goals, improved business outcomes and fewer roadblocks to modernization.
Unlike solutions that sit alongside Kafka or require protocol translation, Event Endpoint Management provides a Kafka-Native Event Gateway built directly on the Kafka protocol. It integrates seamlessly with existing infrastructure, whether running open-source Apache Kafka, IBM Event Streams, or other distributions like Confluent. The gateway works with what you already have, so there is no need to re-architect. With no custom connectors and no vendor lock-in, the built-in flexibility allows teams to orchestrate workflows across providers. This supports agility and minimizes disruption. IBM Event Automation runs in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, including IBM Cloud, AWS and others, giving organizations the flexibility to scale and manage their event-driven architecture.
The Kafka-native approach helps validate existing systems while supporting new technologies. This flexibility enables cost-efficient scaling and maximizes the value of current investments. Built on the open-source Kafka protocol, it offers transparency and customization for future needs.
Its native design reduces overhead and improves composability, making it easier to deploy and scale event-driven integrations. Kafka-native solutions enhance performance, support sustainability, and reduce cost, driving better business outcomes and improving data management. This empowers secure sharing, stronger partnerships and continuous innovation.
One of the most compelling features of the Kafka-Native Event Gateway of Event Endpoint Management is its ability to safely expose Kafka topics to external clients, partners or third parties. Want to share specific Event Streams with suppliers, developers, or shareholders? Available now, without opening up your entire Kafka cluster.
Event Endpoint Management's Kafka-Native Event Gateway is architected for secure internet-facing deployment, built-in support for enterprise-grade authentication, TLS encryption and fine-grained topic-level access control. The gateway becomes the enforcement point of handling data transformations, redacting and enforcing access so only the right data is shared with the right audience, in the right format. This capability ensures secure and cost-effective sharing of data without compromising security, making it an ideal solution for modern businesses undergoing digital transformation in industries like financial services and healthcare, where sensitive data is prevalent.
This architecture transforms B2B collaboration while ensuring compliance and safeguarding sensitive data, especially, in regulated industries. This approach validates the need for seamless, controlled external sharing as companies expand their business relationships and data ecosystems. Companies can collaborate more effectively with third parties while maintaining full control over sensitive data, which is crucial in regulated industries such as healthcare, financial services and government.
In traditional Kafka usage, teams often duplicate topics to cater to different consumers by adding overhead, complexity and confusion. Event Endpoint Management introduces a better approach: Kafka virtualization. With virtualization, you can expose a single backend Kafka topic in multiple ways such as filtered, redacted or projected differently, depending on the consuming application or audience. This means:
- No need to duplicate topics per use case
- Clearer governance and data lineage
- Lower infrastructure and operational costs
Kafka virtualization helps optimize the management of Kafka topics across an organization, ensuring that data is shared efficiently without unnecessary replication, thus validating the importance of a streamlined, unified approach to event-driven architecture. It’s a smarter, more efficient way to scale Kafka usage across departments or partner ecosystems, promoting digital transformation in a scalable, cost-effective manner. Additionally, the approach helps drive sustainability by reducing infrastructure duplication, leading to lower carbon footprints and more eco-friendly operations.
With this approach, businesses can handle vast amounts of data without the need for unnecessary duplication, cutting down on storage and processing costs. This not only ensures a more efficient system but also contributes to improved sustainability in the long term by lowering the energy required for data processing. Digital transformation initiatives become more effective as data management is streamlined, and the organization can react faster to market changes with more agile infrastructure.
The Kafka-Native Event Gateway bridges internal systems and external partners. Whether you're using Event-Enabled Microservices or integrating with systems like webMethods, the gateway supports secure Kafka-based event sharing beyond organizational boundaries.
For webMethods users new to Kafka, it offers a low-friction entry point. You can use open-source Kafka with Event Endpoint Management and IBM Event Automation without re-platforming. This makes it a practical tool for digital transformation.
Organizations gain full control over event sharing, enhancing governance and improving competitiveness. As businesses expand their digital capabilities, this ensures they can scale and collaborate securely and efficiently. It also positions them to quickly adjust to real-world challenges as they grow their digital capabilities and modernize their operations.
A centralized event catalog is part of Event Endpoint Management, making it easier for teams to discover, manage, and govern Kafka topics from a single source of truth.
But that’s just the start. The vision is a unified enterprise event catalog that enables:
- Self-service topic access
- Reuse of existing events
- Cross-domain collaboration
With built-in metadata, access policies and lifecycle controls, the catalog empowers developers, architects and business teams to accelerate delivery, reduce duplication and streamline integration.
The Kafka-Native Event Gateway plays a critical role here by providing policy-driven access to events wherever they reside—making event-driven architecture more strategic, scalable and discoverable. This approach strengthens data integrity, supports faster delivery of new use cases, and helps reduce time to market.
Kafka is already powering your data streams—now it can power your partnerships, too. With IBM Event Automation, you can do more than just move events. You can go from isolated streams to intelligent, secure sharing—inside and outside your organization.
Here’s what you unlock:
- Kill Kafka sprawl – One topic, many views. Virtualize instead of duplicating.
- Go external, safely – Share with clients, partners or developers via hardened, internet-facing gateways.
- Cost-effective – Fewer topics, leaner operations, lower infrastructure overhead.
- Modernize B2B – Easily integrate with shareholders, suppliers or third parties.
- Adopt Kafka without chaos – Even if you're starting from tools like webMethods.
When the Kafka-Native Event Gateway was highlighted at IBM THINK, the solution was seen as an ideal way to address the challenges of scaling event-driven architectures, while enabling secure and efficient partnerships. One of the key takeaways was that this tool is integral to any organization looking to improve data management and orchestrate effective workflows by reducing silos. The advancements on display validated the necessity of this solution for any digital transformation efforts and improving business outcomes.
Event-driven does not have to mean complicated. With IBM Event Automation, you get the power of Kafka but without the sprawl. By ensuring that Kafka topics are managed efficiently and securely, IBM Event Automation helps organizations optimize their data architecture, making it cost-effective and scalable for the future. These advancements allow businesses to seamlessly transition to modern, digital transformation strategies with confidence. Whether it's optimizing workloads in financial services or orchestrating workflows for the healthcare industry, this solution is designed to scale and evolve with the business.