Data streaming platform Confluent opens Middle East headquarters in Dubai

Confluent, the data streaming platform, has inaugurated its local headquarters in Dubai with teams including sales, solution engineering, professional services, customer success, and channel functions.

Fred Crehan, an IT industry veteran of over 20 years who has been appointed as the company’s regional director for the Middle East, said, “The continuous collection and delivery of data across the digital enterprise – what we refer to as ‘data in motion’ – underpins all digital initiatives, be it the modernisation of IT, adoption of AI, utilisation of analytics, or migration to the cloud. UAE organisations recognise that unlocking the full potential of real-time data will empower them to pioneer compelling digital services for the discerning modern consumer.”

“For this reason, the open-source distributed event streaming platform, Apache Kafka, is rapidly becoming a must-have component in the IT infrastructures of UAE businesses. However, with all but the largest of organisations being incapable of having dedicated, in-house Kafka experts, typically, businesses must find ways to leverage this essential technology without being restricted by technical complexity and management overheads. At Confluent, we’re delivering unmatched speed and simplicity to organisations that depend on this infrastructure by offering fully managed Kafka services that are purpose-built for the modern enterprise,” Crehan added.

Confluent offers a foundational platform for data-in-motion, which enables organisations to harness the full power of continuously flowing data to innovate and thrive in the modern digital world, a statement said.

Akin to the ‘central nervous system’ of an organisation, this platform – which can be deployed either on-premise or on the cloud – lets companies connect all their applications around real-time streams to react and respond intelligently to everything that happens in their business. This compelling value proposition propelled the company to achieve 64 per cent year-over-year revenue growth through 2021.

In the UAE, the channel is an integral part of Confluent’s go to market strategy, the statement added.

In addition to making its offering available via the marketplaces of major cloud providers, including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS, the company is establishing a network of expertly qualified systems integrators and consultancy partners.

“We’re committed to building a focused set of partners that can translate the full value of Confluent to our end customers. We are therefore focused on working together with channel players who are ready to build a practice around our technologies, and we shall extend the full range of technical, sales, and marketing support they need to succeed,” said Crehan.

Meanwhile, data is always in motion in the digital economy, powering rich customer experiences and efficient, data-driven applications. Data streaming is a new category of computing that enables any business to stream, store, and process data in real-time. With data streaming acting as a central nervous system, all the data within an organisation becomes instantly available to all applications and people in real-time. As a result, new business can be uncovered, customer experiences exceeded, and new operational efficiencies realised.