You’ve probably heard that Apache Kafka is moving away from ZooKeeper with the introduction of KRaft mode—a major architectural shift that simplifies deployment and management. Pair that with Strimzi, the Kubernetes-native operator for Kafka, and you might start to wonder: what does this mean for running Kafka in a cloud-native world?

This talk will demystify the current state of Kafka on Kubernetes, focusing on how Strimzi supports KRaft mode, what’s changing under the hood, and what it means for operators and developers. We’ll explore the benefits of ditching ZooKeeper, how Strimzi’s CRDs and automation make KRaft deployments easier, and what new patterns are emerging for observability, scaling, and GitOps integration.

Whether you're running Kafka in production or just curious about the future of data streaming in Kubernetes, this talk will give you a clear picture of where things are headed—and how to get there.