Kafka After IBM Confluent: Your Options and Alternatives

Stay on Confluent, or run your own Kafka platform?

Two valid paths. We help with both.

IBM's acquisition of Confluent has Kafka teams asking where their platform should go next. For many, staying on Confluent with IBM is the right call. For teams that need everything in their own network, on-premise or air-gapped, Lascaris bundles the Kafka engine, backup and recovery, S3-native storage, IoT and telemetry ingest and the analyst workspace into one supported platform. This page lays out both options so you can pick based on your constraints.

IBM Implementation & Architecture Partner and Confluent partner

Confluent onboarding and enablement for Platform and Cloud teams

Lascaris: wire-compatible with Confluent and Redpanda, Apache-2.0 open core

What Lascaris solves.

Your data stays yours

Regulated data cannot leave your network, and neither can the SI reasoning on it. Lascaris runs on-premise, air-gapped or in your sovereign cloud. Nothing goes outside.

From sensor to decision

Sensor data, live streams and existing systems end up in one live picture. Analysts and agents see the same state and act on it, without waiting for a nightly report.

Every decision on the record

Each decision is logged with the data and rules behind it. When the auditor or the regulator asks why, you show them. Built for DORA, NIS2 and the AI Act. Learn more in our DORA and NIS2 checklist.

Recover from the bad day

A deleted topic or a stolen key can wipe your standby too. Lascaris keeps a locked copy that attackers cannot touch, so you can restore and keep operating. Replication is not backup. Here is why.

Keep years of data, cheaply

History is stored on low-cost object storage instead of expensive servers. You keep the data you need for audits and training without the bill growing every quarter.

One vendor, one contract

One platform, one support line and one team accountable for it. Your engineers work on your use cases, not on keeping the stack running.

Side by side

A fair comparison.

Neither path is better for everyone. This is how they differ on the points our customers ask about most.

Topic	Path A · Confluent with IBM	Path B · Lascaris
Where it runs	Confluent Cloud, or Confluent Platform in your own data center or Kubernetes.	Inside your own cloud account, on-premise or air-gapped. Your data never leaves your environment.
Who runs it	Confluent runs Cloud for you. Your team runs Platform.	We run it for you in your cloud, or your team runs it with our support. Your choice.
Cost of history	Based on Confluent's storage and pricing model.	History is kept on low-cost object storage, so long retention for audits and training stays affordable.
Low-latency workloads	The full Kafka feature set, including the lowest-latency and transactional workloads.	Built for analytics, operations and agent workloads. For millisecond-critical paths, Lascaris runs on top of the Kafka you already have.
Backup and recovery	Hot replication between clusters. Add Lascaris backup for a locked, off-vendor copy.	Locked backup copy included, out of reach of production credentials, with recovery into a parallel environment.
Agents and decisions	Bring your own agent stack on top.	Live entity graph, agent policies and an audit log of every decision, built in.
License	Commercial subscription.	Open core under Apache-2.0, with Lascaris as the commercial, supported platform.
How Scalytics helps	Onboarding, enablement, architecture and support as an IBM and Confluent partner.	Deployment, operations and long-term support for the whole platform under one contract.

You can also combine them: Lascaris mirrors topics from your production Confluent cluster, so production stays untouched while agents, replay and recovery drills run on the Lascaris side.

Common questions.

Should we move off Confluent after the IBM acquisition?

Not necessarily. If Confluent fits your operating model, staying is a valid choice, and Scalytics supports Confluent teams with onboarding, enablement and architecture work as an IBM and Confluent partner. Lascaris is for teams whose data and decisions have to stay in their own environment.

What is a Confluent alternative for sovereign or air-gapped environments?

Scalytics Lascaris runs inside your own cloud account, on-premise or air-gapped, with no outbound connection required. We can run it for you, or your team runs it with our support.

Do we have to replace our Kafka cluster to use Lascaris?

No. Lascaris runs on Confluent, Redpanda or Apache Kafka. If you have no cluster, the streaming engine is included.

Is Lascaris a managed service?

Yes, if you want it to be. We run Lascaris for you inside your own cloud, so you get a managed platform without your data leaving your account. Teams that want full control run it themselves with our support.

Is replication enough for Kafka backup?

No. Replication also copies deletes, bad writes and the actions of a stolen key. Lascaris keeps a locked backup copy that production credentials cannot reach.

Is Lascaris open source?

Its core is Apache-2.0 open source, with a Community Edition on GitHub. Lascaris is the commercial platform: hardened, tested and supported under one contract.

Built by a team with Apache, military, and enterprise engineering experience.

Scalytics brings together Apache open-source leadership, military operational experience, and enterprise engineering depth. The team includes the original inventors of Apache Wayang and senior operators and engineers from organizations including Allianz, Cloudera, Confluent, E.ON, McKinsey, and Scout24. Lascaris reflects that background: disciplined system boundaries, auditable contracts, and design choices made for mission-critical environments.

Stay on Confluent, or run your own Kafka platform?