Axual: Kafka Platform with Built-In Governance
Axual delivers a Kafka platform with governance at its core. By separating governance from data streaming, our architecture provides the control and compliance European organizations require while reducing the complexity of running production Kafka.
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Why choose Axual for Kafka governance
Axual provides a Kafka platform that combines operational efficiency with the governance and resilience required for mission-critical data flows. Unlike DIY implementations that delay governance until complexity becomes unmanageable, our platform integrates comprehensive controls from day one.
How the Axual Kafka Platform works
Streaming
Axual Streaming delivers enterprise-grade Apache Kafka built on Strimzi. Our platform handles billions of daily events with millisecond speed. We support on-premise and hybrid deployments, giving you data sovereignty, reliable performance, and integration with your security systems, benefits cloud-only solutions often lack.
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Governance
Axual Governance builds role-based access control, schema management, and audit capabilities directly into your Kafka architecture, addressing security and compliance needs that DIY implementations often ignore. The platform enforces separation of duties through detailed permissions, maintains schema quality, and provides complete audit trails of all changes and access across your streaming infrastructure.
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Infrastructure
Axual deploys on standard Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift, with multi-cluster support for geographical distribution and disaster recovery. Our architecture separates the control plane (Governance) from the data plane (Kafka brokers), allowing independent scaling while maintaining unified management. This enables deployment across security zones, reduces latency through regional distribution, and aligns with your existing network and security policies.
Connectors
Axual's managed Kafka Connect framework includes pre-built connectors for databases, messaging systems, cloud storage, and APIs. Credentials are securely stored in HashiCorp Vault, and self-service deployment enables teams to create governed data flows between Kafka and existing systems. This maintains consistent security and audit controls across all integration points.
Kafka deployment across cloud and on-prem
Axual’s containerized architecture deploys through Helm charts and Strimzi operators across diverse infrastructure environments. The decoupled control and data planes enable distribution across security zones and geographic regions while maintaining unified governance. This allows you to implement governed Kafka streams within your existing infrastructure constraints without requiring architectural changes.
On-Premises
Deploy Axual in your data center or Virtual Private Cloud and retain full control over your Kafka environment. Run on Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift, with data remaining within your security perimeter. Ensure architectural sovereignty over mission-critical streams while meeting strict regulatory requirements.
Cloud
Let us manage the infrastructure while you focus on streaming innovation. Axual Cloud runs on our managed Kubernetes platform, delivering enterprise Kafka without operational overhead. You retain full governance and control, with 24/7 platform management included and enterprise grade streaming without the infrastructure burden.
Expertise in Kafka and Strimzi
Axual delivers specialized Kafka expertise to organizations across Europe. Our governance-first approach ensures compliance and architectural integrity. We support Strimzi on Kubernetes without compromising security. With proven deployments in financial services, healthcare, and energy, we keep your streaming architecture ready as requirements evolve.
Managed Services
We manage your Kafka platform while your architects focus on core business. Our European team handles governance and scaling for mission-critical streaming across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.
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Strimzi Support
Our Strimzi expertise ensures stable, governed Kafka on Kubernetes. We provide configuration guidance and architectural reviews that exceed community support, as demonstrated at TenneT and Eneco.
Hands-on Expertise
Our specialists have implemented Kafka governance at scale across multiple sectors. We provide direct guidance on design, integration, and regulatory requirements based on practical experience.
Operational Support
We handle capacity planning, compliance updates, and performance optimization. We focus on governance while ensuring your streaming infrastructure remains resilient as requirements evolve.
Industry Solutions
Discover how financial institutions, healthcare providers, and government agencies across Europe rely on Axual to support mission-critical operations.
Answers about Axual’s Kafka Platform
Questions about enterprise Kafka governance? Our FAQ covers compliance, reliability, and architectural control. For technical questions, contact our European-based specialists.
Axual builds governance into the platform from day one. With DIY approaches, you build custom tooling for topic management, access controls, and audit trails from scratch. Axual provides enterprise governance out of the box: a self-service interface with approval workflows, integrated role-based access control, schema management, and complete audit trails.
Axual addresses European regulations through built-in governance. For GDPR, it provides audit trails, role-based access controls, and data residency features that keep data within specified boundaries. In financial services, our platform supports transaction monitoring and detailed auditing. For healthcare, it ensures patient data security and consent management compliance. The platform's multi-tenant architecture, encrypted transmission, and comprehensive logging help demonstrate compliance during regulatory audits.
Axual's distributor provides real-time geo-replication between Kafka clusters, synchronizing messages, offsets, and schemas with minimal latency. If one cluster fails, applications seamlessly switch to another and resume from the exact same position. The platform supports active-active or active-passive configurations across data centers, delivering 99.999% availability for mission-critical operations.
For production, Axual requires a Kubernetes cluster with:
- 3 dedicated nodes for Kafka brokers and ZooKeeper (8CPU, 32GB each)
- 2-3 nodes for Axual Platform components (4CPU, 16GB each)
- 3 additional nodes if using Connect or Distributor (can be combined with platform components)
All nodes should be spread across different availability zones. For proof-of-concept, 4 nodes (4CPU, 16GB each) are sufficient. The platform needs persistent SSD storage, network policy support, and proper DNS resolution. Axual provides Helm charts for deployment on Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift. See our documentation for details.
Axual Connect provides a managed Kafka Connect service with pre-built connectors for databases, message queues, and enterprise systems. All credentials are securely stored in HashiCorp Vault. Users deploy connectors through a self-service interface, while the platform handles credential injection and runs connectors in isolated worker clusters with TLS encryption. Role-based access controls ensure only authorized users can create connectors and access specific data sources, with full audit trails. This eliminates credential management risks while providing secure integrations with banking platforms, ERP systems, and legacy infrastructure.
Axual handles billions of events per day with millisecond latency in production. Performance scales linearly by adding brokers or partitions, with NVMe storage and 10Gb+ networks improving throughput. The Distributor for geo-replication adds minimal overhead, keeping cross-cluster lag in milliseconds. Axual's governance layer operates out-of-band without impacting data plane performance. Adding broker nodes maintains consistent throughput as workloads increase.
Axual's self-service interface lets authorized users create topics and manage schemas without admin bottlenecks, while role-based access controls enforce organizational policies. The platform translates user permissions into Kafka ACLs automatically, with configurable approval workflows and comprehensive audit trails for compliance. Teams get development agility while architects maintain control over data streams, access policies, and governance across all environments.
Axual brings sector-specific expertise from mission-critical implementations across energy, healthcare, and financial services. This includes understanding European regulations like GDPR, MiFID II, and data sovereignty needs that generic Kafka consultants often lack. The platform incorporates lessons from deployments requiring 99.999% availability and delivers built-in enterprise governance.