Declarative Connectors with Confluent for Kubernetes

Apache Kafka's rich ecosystem of connectors necessitates managing multiple connectors in a consistent, infra-as-code, automated manner. Confluent for Kubernetes (CFK) enables this by providing a declarative API to manage connectors through an infrastructure-as-code approach. CFK uses CustomResourceDefinitions (CRDs) and Kubernetes APIs to deploy and self-manage Confluent Platform components as well as application resources like topics, schemas, and connectors. With CFK, connectors can be managed efficiently, and their lifecycle can be automated. The platform also supports the use of init containers to download and install connector plugins, making it easy to provision Kafka Connect with connector plugins through a one-step operation.