Aiven welcomes Kafkawize, now Klaw

Open source is at the heart of Aiven. That is why today is such a special day, as we formally welcome Kafkawize, now Klaw, into our Open Source Program Office. This marks a significant milestone, not just as our first acquisition, but as the moment where we add “steward of communities” to our open source commitment. In addition to welcoming Klaw, we are also happy to welcome Muralidhar Basani to our engineering team to continue shepherding the development of Klaw.

About Klaw

Klaw, an open source data governance tool for Apache Kafka®, provides a web-based data governance tool for managing Apache Kafka Topics, ACLs, and schemas. Murali started building this open source project in 2018 with the simple goal of making Apache Kafka data governance easier for developers.

Klaw provides an easy user interface where teams of Apache Kafka service users can request changes to the Apache Kafka configuration without the intervention of administrators. With the right data governance in place, a user can:

• Make better decisions: With the right governance in place you can make consistent, confident business decisions based on trustworthy metadata.
• Enhance regulatory compliance and audit: An increasingly complex regulatory climate has made it more important than ever for organizations to establish robust data governance practices. Apache Kafka environments move critical data through systems and organizations. Using proper user management and policy with Klaw, you can avoid noncompliance risks while anticipating new regulations.
• Optimize efficiency: Klaw provides a graphical UI to manage all Apache Kafka Topics, giving access according to predefined user rights. Developers no longer need to spend hours managing and synchronizing config files between teams and owners.

Murali open sourced his project to make sure that this tool is available to all. Aiven is upholding this commitment, and we will keep the code available for the community under the name Klaw. Aiven will actively seek contributors to collaborate with us on Klaw in the future.

Aiven + Klaw

Today, we see a large demand for data governance around Apache Kafka. It started as a relatively straightforward streaming engine, but quickly built momentum — and today Apache Kafka is the centerpiece of a modern data pipeline.

The lack of proper governance can place data at risk if managed improperly. Some solutions are available in the market, but unfortunately most of these are not open source. This hinders access and adoption by developers.

By having Klaw join Aiven, we contribute to its long-term success, while preserving it as an open source project. Unlike proprietary alternatives, Klaw also enables us to provide Apache Kafka users much-needed open source tooling. Because Klaw is an open source technology, we have an opportunity to grow the community around it out in the open, which not only aligns with our values, but also has business advantages.

As part of our Series C funding announcement, Aiven made a public commitment to promote and uplift open source. Today, I’m thrilled to announce this news and continue making good on our promises by evolving from an open-source contributor to a steward of open-source communities.