Kafka is a distributed data store optimized for ingesting and processing streaming data in real time. It's commonly used as a source for real-time ingestion use cases where the target is one or more relational databases that act as a ODS, data mart, or data warehouse for real-time analytics. Oracle and SingleStore are two popular database options for integrating with Kafka. Oracle integration with Kafka involves using GoldenGate to extract data from Kafka and replicate it to Oracle, which comes with high costs, points of failure, operations cost, and infrastructure overhead. In contrast, SingleStore has native integrations with Kafka, allowing for real-time ingestion without the need for ETL/CDC tools, reducing TCO, points of failure, operational overhead, and complexity. SingleStore Pipelines enable efficient data ingestion from various external sources, including Kafka, in a simple and scalable architecture.