Apache Kafka's optimal performance and reliability are significantly influenced by its underlying infrastructure, making careful selection of storage options crucial, especially when deploying on AWS Cloud. Each Kafka cluster consists of brokers that manage data in topics, ensuring data persistence and fault tolerance through replication and rebalancing. EBS volumes are recommended for Kafka on AWS due to their consistent I/O performance and flexibility, allowing for quick reallocation in case of instance failure and ensuring clean shutdowns without data loss. The newer st1 and sc1 EBS offerings are particularly promising for Kafka's sequential I/O workloads, offering enhanced performance and reliability at reduced costs. While storage is a primary focus, other infrastructure components like CPU, memory, and networking are also vital for a Kafka cluster's capabilities, and future discussions will delve into these aspects. Additionally, the announcement of Apache Kafka 3.8.0 introduces various new features and improvements, highlighting ongoing advancements in the platform.