Design Considerations for Cloud-Native Data Systems

The shift in expectations for cloud-native data systems has led to the development of new capabilities that users now expect, such as elasticity, multi-tenancy, scalability, resiliency, cost-effectiveness, and global replication. Confluent Cloud's approach to building a high-performance cloud-native data system involves understanding user workloads well, optimizing for their needs, and aligning infrastructure constraints across the entire stack. The company has developed techniques such as Self Balancing Clusters, tiered storage, and performance optimization principles to deliver better performance on cost-effective infrastructure. By designing systems from the ground up to be cloud-native software-as-a-service offerings, Confluent Cloud provides a multi-tenant system that introduces economies of scale to the service, allowing for automatic and transparent response to new workloads and isolating tenants from noisy neighbors.