Data Quality Monitoring for Streaming Data
Monitoring Data Quality for structured data at rest is challenging enough in modern data environments without adding another layer of complexity to it, like real-time streaming data. With data in motion, Data Quality issues are amplified since hidden bad data can cascade quickly, proliferating to more places downstream — likely, undetected.
For example, if incorrect data and invalid schemas go undetected in event-driven streaming platforms like Kafka, downstream applications and supported services in that ecosystem can fail or run at suboptimal performance. Since many organizations use Kafka to run real-time applications for high-volume and high-speed transactions — such as restaurant sales, e-commerce, Internet of Things (IoT), telco systems, streaming video services, or even tracking customer loyalty points — it’s critical to ensure every system is running on high-quality data.
Over the last few years, the need to monitor Data Quality for streaming data in Kafka has dramatically increased, which is why we’re excited to announce the release of Lightup’s beta connector for ksqlDB.
How It Works
Since ksqlDB has a different architecture than relational databases with structured tables, applying Data Quality checks the traditional way to real-time streaming data doesn’t work.
In order to run Data Quality checks on streaming Kafka data, we took a different approach. Lightup connects to ksqlDB to read streaming data from all Topics stored in Kafka clusters.
- In Lightup, a “Kafka cluster” is treated as a data source.
- Since tables don’t exist in Kafka, the “Topics” in ksqlDB are converted to tables in Lightup.
- Since schemas don’t exist in Kafka, Lightup automatically creates a schema, named “default.“
The Lightup connector for ksqlDB enables you to monitor metadata Auto Metrics for Tables, Schemas, and Columns in Kafka “Topics” (handled as Tables in Lightup).
- ksqlDB must be installed and configured for stream processing on Kafka clusters.
- A Kafka schema registry is necessary to get the schema of the values in each Topic.
Lightup Data Quality and Observability for ksqlDB
Monitoring Data Quality in real time is more crucial than ever, especially as organizations increasingly rely on streaming data platforms like Kafka for high-speed, high-volume transactions. With the beta launch of our ksqlDB connector, Lightup enables enterprises to monitor Data Quality for streaming data in dynamic, event-driven ecosystems.
By treating Kafka Topics as tables in Lightup and automatically generating schemas for otherwise schemaless streaming data, Lightup empowers enterprises to monitor Data Quality for real-time data. The result? Enterprise data teams can proactively catch issues before incidents escalate and cascade through downstream systems and workloads.
As the demand for real-time analytics and AI applications continues to grow, ensuring high-quality data for all systems isn’t just important, it’s essential for maintaining optimal performance and data reliability in modern data environments.
Learn more about Lightup’s ksqlDB connector, request a free consultation and demo today.