The PRQL: Redpanda: Revolutionizing Streaming Systems and Challenging the Kafka Status Quo with Alex Gallego

Eric Dodds 00:05
Welcome to The Data Stack Show prequel where we replay a snippet from the show we just recorded. Kostas, are you ready to give people a sneak peek? Let’s do it. Okay, Kostas, I didn’t make it back in time to hear the entire recording. But looking at the internal chat, it seems like at a minimum, they had some huge news about a fundraise. Which is super exciting. But tell me what you learned?

Kostas Pardalis 00:36
Yeah, first of all, Eric, like, we have to say that even like the best couples need somebody stones sometimes, you know, well, then we’re gonna listen to Blair. So I think I mean,

Eric Dodds 00:49
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Did you miss me?

Kostas Pardalis 00:53
Ah, yes, like I enjoyed talking with Alex, like, without you. I did miss you. Yeah, like, obviously, you always give like a very unique dimension to the conversation, the conversations that we have, that’s why we’re like, the two of us there. But it was fun to talk with, with Alex, for sure. He’s a very deeply technical person obsessed with performance, which I think like is also a reason may seem like such a good fit to go after this problem. Because it is, like a very critical system, that you need to have like very strong guarantees when it comes to both performance and resilience. Right. Like, that’s why like Kafka is also like, such an important system. And so it was fascinating, like to chat with him, experienced, like his passion about what he’s building. And it pays off, right, like they announced like their next round of funding, like they raised like 100 million, like, okay, nothing the best market out there for fundraising at this stages. Which means that they’re doing something right. And it seems also that they were like good reasons why we didn’t have like more competition in this space in the past, like, 10 years. But now, like, it seems like there is a time for that. So I would recommend to our audience like to tune in and like listen to Alex about, like, talking about these technologies, how they were built, why they were built the way they were built, why we need a new paradigm today. What red panda can like offer, compared like to, to a system like Kafka, and some very cool, new technologies like was, like WebAssembly that they are using and how they are incorporating these new like, infrastructure like paradigms to really create like a unique new experience and a unique new product that it’s much better, let’s say, addressing the needs of today compared like two other systems. So I would suggest to everyone like to tune in, it’s going to be he’s a bright person, like, very smart, obviously, with very deep knowledge that he’s sharing on these episodes. And, yeah, it will be fun, like for everyone like to listen to it.

Eric Dodds 03:19
Awesome. Well, I am so glad you learned about Kafka and Redpanda. I am so disappointed. I missed it, but I’ll be back on the next. Yeah, you will. All right, well, subscribe if you haven’t tell a friend and we have great episodes coming up. So stay tuned.