Life Is But A Stream

• Shaping the Future of AI: A2A + Data Streaming

  All AI problems are data problems—and one of the biggest is getting AI agents to talk to each other. This special episode with Sean Falconer dives into how agents built by different teams often end up stranded in “intelligence silos,” unable to collaborate or share context. The result? Fragmented AI that struggles to deliver real business value. Tune in to learn why moving beyond isolated AI experiments calls for a robust data streaming backbone—and how Confluent's strategic partnership with Google Cloud sets organizations up for building multi-agent AI systems at scale. With technologies like Apache Kafka®, agents can tap into a central stream of trustworthy data—effectively creating a nervous system for your AI ecosystem. That backbone enables real-time exchange, scalable collaboration, and reliable intelligence across the enterprise—unlocking speed and innovation that siloed AI can’t deliver.About the Guest:Sean Falconer is a Senior Director, Product Management - AI Strategy at Confluent where he works on AI strategy and thought leadership. Sean’s been an academic, startup founder, and Googler. He has published works covering a wide range of topics from AI to quantum computing. Sean also hosts the popular engineering podcasts Software Engineering Daily and Software Huddle. Guest Highlight:“What is the message between agents? It's just data. You're moving that data from one agent system to another agent system, whether that's a multi-agent system that's collaborating or even these agents that exist in different, you know, parts of the business, you can use data streaming essentially be the bridge where those agents shared language, the shared communication becomes events.”Episode Timestamps:*(00:00) - Introduction*(00:34) - Why AI is Fundamentally a Data Challenge*(02:17) - Data Streaming: The Foundation for AI*(07:21) - The “Island of Agents” Problem*(09:46) - Streaming Agents vs. Chatbots*(12:35) -  The Consequences of Disconnected Agents*(14:09) -   The Power of Event-Driven Architecture*(25:04) - The A2A Protocol—Google Cloud and Confluent *(31:19) - Model Context Protocol (MCP)*(34:13) - Agent Development Kit (ADK)*(37:36) - Real-World AI Use Cases*(42:20) - Key GenAI Features on Confluent Cloud *(45:43) - Wrap-Up: TakeawaysLinks & Resources:Connect with Joseph: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDataGiantWhy Google’s Agent2Agent Protocol Needs Apache Kafka®Joseph’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedatagiantSean’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanf/Real-Time AI Agents Powered by Apache Kafka®, Apache Flink®, and Google CloudListen to podcast: https://flowsto.com/r/9BRiRRl1cLearn more at Confluent.ioOur Sponsor  Your data shouldn’t be a problem to manage. It should be your superpower. The Confluent data streaming platform transforms organizations with trustworthy, real-time data that seamlessly spans your entire environment and powers innovation across every use case. Create smarter, deploy faster, and maximize efficiency with a true data streaming platform from the pioneers in data streaming. Learn more at confluent.io.About the ShowHosted by Joseph Morais, Life Is But A Stream is for technology leaders looking to embrace the data revolution and transform their organizations through data streaming. Instant analytics, next level customer experiences, and business innovation that was previously unimaginable: it all starts with Life Is But A Stream. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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• Ep 12 - Shift Left, Stream Fast: The Real-Time Data Strategy Fueling Swedbank’s Future

  In a highly regulated industry where every millisecond matters, Swedbank is shifting its data strategy to move fast without breaking trust. In this episode, Rami Al Lolah, Lead Architect at Swedbank’s Integration Center of Excellence, shares how the bank built a future-proof foundation using Apache Kafka® with Confluent Cloud.From early investments in building reusable data products to shift left, , Swedbank’s strategy goes beyond infrastructure. It’s about enabling interoperability, eliminating data silos, and empowering teams to think differently about how data should flow across a modern financial institution.You’ll Learn:How Swedbank reduces risk by accelerating data availability across teamsWhy “shift left” is a cultural and architectural shift,not just a development patternWhy choose Confluent over other solutionsWhere Swedbank sees the biggest opportunities for AI and streaming in the futureWhether you're leading modernization for a financial institution or scaling real-time data for your organization, this episode offers a blueprint for transformation. About the Guest:Rami Al Lolah is a seasoned professional, technologist and domain expert for 25+ years within the application and systems integration domain. His expertise is in delivering, designing, writing major integration solutions from world leading integration technology providers, leading technical/services teams, and directing major integration technical implementations. Guest Highlight: “We need to embrace the [shift left] mindset and methodology, and try to move critical considerations, for example — compliance, security, governance, and data quality earlier in the development process. This means that when teams build something like a Kafka topic, or even an API or a file based integration, they are not just focusing on making it work technically. They are already thinking about who owns it, who owns the data, what the contract, what the schemas look like, who will access this data, and how the access will be managed.”Episode Timestamps: *(06:40) - Data Streaming Goodness*(33:15) -   The Runbook: Winning Strategies*(41:15) -    Data Streaming Street Cred*(47:40) - Quick Bytes*(54:30) - Joseph’s Top 3 TakeawaysDive Deeper into Data Streaming:EP1—Stream On: Unleashing Innovation with Data Streaming | Life Is But A StreamEP2—Processing Without Pause: Continuous Stream Processing and Apache Flink® | Life Is But A StreamEP3—The Connective Tissue: Shift Left to turn Data Chaos to Clarity | Life Is But A StreamLinks & Resources:Connect with Joseph: @thedatagiantJoseph’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thedatagiantRami’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ramiallolahLearn more at Confluent.ioOur Sponsor:  Your data shouldn’t be a problem to manage. It should be your superpower. The Confluent data streaming platform transforms organizations with trustworthy, real-time data that seamlessly spans your entire environment and powers innovation across every use case. Create smarter, deploy faster, and maximize efficiency with a true data streaming platform from the pioneers in data streaming. Learn more at confluent.io  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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• Ep 11 - Streaming Data at Scale with Strategic Cloud Partners

  Strategic partnerships don’t work without trust. And in the data streaming world, trust begins with transparency.In this episode, Elena Cuevas, Sr. Manager of Cloud Partner Solutions Engineering at Confluent, joins Joseph Morais to unpack what it takes to collaborate with hyperscalers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. From managing competitive overlaps to future-proofing enterprise data architectures, Elena shares her battle-tested strategies for driving alignment across complex stakeholder ecosystems.You’ll learn:How to collaborate effectively across competitive cloud partnerships Why transparency builds trust and drives adoption in partner-led salesWhat  shift left unlocks for streaming data governanceHow Confluent supports GenAI use cases with real-time data Whether you're working with a cloud provider or building your own ecosystem, Elena’s playbook will change how you think about partnership, transparency, and long-term scale.About the Guest:Elena Cuevas currently leads the Cloud Partner Solutions Engineering team at Confluent, where she and her team focus on strengthening technical relationships with cloud providers.Prior to joining Confluent, Elena spent several years at Google, working directly with some of the company’s largest Google Cloud customers in both pre-sales and post-sales capacities.She is passionate about helping members of historically underrepresented communities see that a path in STEM is within reach if they choose to pursue it. Elena has served as an #IamRemarkable facilitator, an instructor for the Computer Science Summer Institute, and is a frequent speaker at universities and high schools.Guest Highlight: “Sometimes we talk about competing and about one or the other, but we do better things when it's ‘and’, and not an ‘or’.”Episode Timestamps: *(07:55) - Data Streaming in a World of Clouds *(14:25) -   The Playbook: Winning Strategies*(23:25) -    Voices from the World of Data Streaming*(28:30) - Quick Bytes*(31:15) - Joseph’s Top 3 TakeawaysDive Deeper into Data Streaming:EP1—Stream On: Unleashing Innovation with Data Streaming | Life Is But A StreamEP2—Processing Without Pause: Continuous Stream Processing and Apache Flink® | Life Is But A StreamEP3—The Connective Tissue: Shift Left to turn Data Chaos to Clarity | Life Is But A StreamLinks & Resources:Connect with Joseph: @thedatagiantJoseph’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thedatagiantElena’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ecuevascLearn more at Confluent.ioOur Sponsor:  Your data shouldn’t be a problem to manage. It should be your superpower. The Confluent data streaming platform transforms organizations with trustworthy, real-time data that seamlessly spans your entire environment and powers innovation across every use case. Create smarter, deploy faster, and maximize efficiency with a true data streaming platform from the pioneers in data streaming. Learn more at confluent.io Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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• Ep 10 - Allium’s Blueprint for Scaling Blockchain Data with Data Streaming

  Blockchain may be decentralized, but reliable access to its data is anything but simple. In this episode, Ethan Chan, Co-Founder & CEO of Allium, shares how his team transforms blockchain firehoses into clean, queryable, real-time data feeds.From the pitfalls of hosting your own data streaming infrastructure to the business advantages of Confluent Cloud, Ethan reveals the strategic decisions that helped Allium scale from 3 to nearly 100 blockchains, without burning out their engineering team.You’ll learn:Why Allium opted for Confluent Cloud from day one How data streaming supports mission-critical blockchain use casesWhat makes stream sharing a force multiplier for customer successHow Confluent connectors accelerated their integrations with Snowflake, BigQuery, and DatabricksWhether you’re building real-time monitoring tools or reconciling petabytes of cross-chain data, this episode offers a blueprint for scaling with Apache Kafka® and Confluent.About the Guest:Ethan Chan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Allium. With over six years of experience in the AI and natural language processing space, Ethan has come to believe that high-quality data is the key constraint in building the best-performing models. This insight drives Allium’s mission: to provide the highest-quality blockchain data infrastructure for crypto analytics and engineering teams at institutions and funds. Allium focuses on delivering clean, reliable data in a simple, accessible format—data served on a silver platter.Before founding Allium, Ethan was the Director of Engineering at Primer, where he founded and led the Primer Command product and team, and re-architected the core machine learning pipelines powering Primer Analyze. Earlier in his career, he lectured at Stanford University and conducted research at the Stanford Intelligent Systems Lab as a graduate student.Guest Highlight: “We definitely always wanted to go for a managed service from the get-go… If you break [streaming], every other engineering company is going to complain and you become infamous—for no reason.”Episode Timestamps: *(01:10) - Allium’s Data Streaming Strategy*(05:20) - Data Streaming Goodness*(26:50) -   The Runbook: Tools & Tactics*(29:55) -   Data Streaming Street Cred: Improve Data Streaming Adoption *(32:10) - Quick Bytes*(36:40) - Joseph’s Top 3 TakeawaysDive Deeper into Data Streaming:EP1—Stream On: Unleashing Innovation with Data Streaming | Life Is But A StreamEP2—Processing Without Pause: Continuous Stream Processing and Apache Flink® | Life Is But A StreamEP3—The Connective Tissue: Shift Left to turn Data Chaos to Clarity | Life Is But A StreamLinks & Resources:Ep 8 - How Airy Powers Real-Time AI Agents with Data Streaming and ConfluentConnect with Joseph: @thedatagiantJoseph’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thedatagiantEthan’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ethanyschanLearn more at Confluent.ioOur Sponsor:  Your data shouldn’t be a problem to manage. It should be your superpower. The Confluent data streaming platform transforms organizations with trustworthy, real-time data that seamlessly spans your entire environment and powers innovation across every use case. Create smarter, deploy faster, and maximize efficiency with a true data streaming platform from the pioneers in data streaming. Learn more at confluent.io. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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• Ep 9 - Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs: How Covetrus Solved Latency with Streaming

  For enterprises managing sprawling systems and frequent M&A activity, data latency isn’t just inconvenient—it’s a blocker to business value. In this episode, Joe Pardi, Senior Director of Global Data Engineering at Covetrus, explains how his team replaced fragile data pipelines with a robust real-time data streaming architecture that enables instant decisions  across the entire enterprise.The Covetrus team started with open source Apache Kafka® and then shifted to Confluent Cloud for scalability and data governance.  Joe shares the adoption has drastically reduced operational overhead, strengthened data governance, and supercharged innovation. He also emphasizes the strategic importance of data integration in post-merger scenarios and how real-time data streaming helps uncover and address data quality issues early on.You’ll learn:Why Covetrus moved from self-managed Kafka to Confluent CloudHow real-time data streaming helps detect data quality issues fasterWhat are the requirements for scaling a data architecture across hundreds of engineersHow data streaming supports M&A integration and value creationWhether you’re centralizing data across silos or enabling downstream systems with real-time feeds, this conversation offers a blueprint for building data streaming platforms that scale.About the Guest:Joe Pardi is the Senior Director of Global Data Engineering at Covetrus, a leading provider in the veterinary services industry. Based in Portland, Maine, he has held this role since January 2021, where he leads data engineering initiatives to support Covetrus' global operations.Guest Highlight: “The whole key with that acquisition strategy is to unlock the value. It's easy to make an acquisition go from 1+1=2, but you're really trying to make 1+1=3… If you're going to do an M&A, you have to get really good at integrating data.”Episode Timestamps: *(05:10) - Covetrus’ Data Streaming Strategy*(06:40) - Data Challenges: Latency and Quality*(26:05) -   The Runbook: Tools & Tactics*(31:15) -   Data Streaming Street Cred: Improve Data Streaming Adoption *(38:25) - Quick Bytes*(42:15) - Joseph’s Top 3 TakeawaysDive Deeper into Data Streaming:EP1—Stream On: Unleashing Innovation with Data Streaming | Life Is But A StreamEP2—Processing Without Pause: Continuous Stream Processing and Apache Flink® | Life Is But A StreamEP3—The Connective Tissue: Shift Left to turn Data Chaos to Clarity | Life Is But A StreamLinks & Resources:Connect with Joseph: @thedatagiantJoseph’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thedatagiantJoe’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joepardiLearn more at Confluent.ioOur Sponsor:  Your data shouldn’t be a problem to manage. It should be your superpower. The Confluent data streaming platform transforms organizations with trustworthy, real-time data that seamlessly spans your entire environment and powers innovation across every use case. Create smarter, deploy faster, and maximize efficiency with a true data streaming platform from the pioneers in data streaming. Learn more at confluent.io. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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