The Ravit Show

Flink Forward Barcelona 2025 was not just about streaming. It was about what comes next for enterprise AI. I sat down with Qingsheng Ren, Team Lead, Flink Connectors & Catalogs at Ververica, and Xintong Song, Staff Software Engineer at Alibaba Cloud, to talk about something that could change how enterprises build AI systems in production: Flink Agents.Flink Agents is being introduced as an open source sub-project under Apache Flink. The goal is simple and ambitious at the same time: bring agentic AI into the same reliable, scalable, fault-tolerant world that already powers real-time data infrastructure.We talked about why this matters.First, why Flink Agents and why now?They walked me through the motivation. Most AI agent frameworks today look exciting in a demo, but they break once you try to run them against live data, streaming events, strict SLAs, audit requirements, cost pressure, and real users. There’s a big gap between prototypes and reliable operations. That’s the gap Flink Agents is aiming to close.Why open source?Both Ververica and Alibaba made it clear that this is not meant to be a proprietary, closed feature. They want this to be a community effort under Apache Flink, not a vendor lock-in story. The belief is that enterprises will only bet on AI agents at scale if the runtime is open, portable, and battle tested.How is building an AI agent different from building a normal Flink job?This part was interesting. A standard Flink job processes streams. An agent has to do more. It has to reason, take actions, call tools, maintain context, react to feedback, and keep doing that continuously. You’re not just transforming data. You’re orchestrating behavior. Flink Agents is meant to give you those building blocks on top of Flink instead of forcing teams to stitch this together themselves.What kind of companies is this for?We got into enterprise workloads that actually need this. Think about environments where fast decisions matter and you can’t afford to go offline:-- Fraud detection and response-- Customer support and workflow automation-- Operational monitoring, alert triage, and remediation-- Real-time personalization and recommendations-- Anywhere you need an autonomous loop, not just a dashboard-- And finally, roadmap.We talked about the next 2 to 3 years. The focus is on deeper runtime primitives for agent behavior, cleaner developer experience, and patterns that large enterprises can trust and repeat.My takeaway:Flink Agents is not just “yet another agent framework.” It’s an attempt to operationalize agentic AI on top of a streaming backbone that already runs at massive scale in production.This is the conversation every enterprise AI team needs to be having right now.#FlinkForward #Ververica #Streaming #RealTime #DataEngineering #AI #TheRavitShow

Real time is getting simpler. At Flink Forward, I sat down with Josep Prat, Director, Aiven. We discussed about Aiven and Ververica | Original creators of Apache Flink® new partnership and what it unlocks for data teams!!!!What we covered: • Why this partnership makes sense now and the outcomes it targets • Fastest ROI use cases for joint customers • How Aiven and Ververica split support, SLAs, and upgrades • The first deployment patterns teams should try. POCs, phased rollouts, or full cutovers • Support for AI projects that need fresh data with low latency • What is coming next on the shared roadmap over the next two quartersIf you care about streaming in production and a cleaner path to value, this one is worth a watch.Full interview now live!!!!#data #ai #streaming #Flink #Aiven #Ververica #realtimestreaming #theravitshow

Flink Forward Barcelona 2025 was a big week for streaming and the streamhouse.I sat down with Jark Wu, Staff Software Engineer at Alibaba Cloud, and Giannis Polyzos, Staff Streaming Architect at Ververica, to talk about Apache Fluss and what is coming next.First, a quick primer. Fluss is built for real-time data at scale. It sits cleanly in the broader ecosystem, connects to the tools teams already use, and focuses on predictable performance and simple operations.What stood out in our chat:• Enterprise features that matterSecurity, durability, and consistent throughput. Cleaner ops, stronger governance, and a smoother path from POC to production.• Zero-state analyticsThey walked me through how Fluss cuts network hops and lowers latency. Less shuffling. Faster results. More efficient pipelines.• Fluss 0.8 highlightsBetter developer experience, more stable primitives, and upgrades that help teams standardize on one streaming backbone.• AI-ready directionVendors are shifting to AI. Fluss is adapting with functions that support agents, retrieval, and low-latency model workflows without bolting on complexity.• Streamhouse alignmentThe new capabilities strengthen Fluss in a streamhouse architecture. One place to handle fast ingest, storage, and analytics so teams do not stitch together five systems.We also covered the roadmap. Expect continued work on latency, cost control, and easier day-two operations, plus patterns that large teams can repeat with confidence.Want to get involvedJoin the community, review the open issues, try the latest builds, and share feedback from real workloads. That is how this moves forward.The full conversation with Jark and Giannis is live now on The Ravit Show.#data #ai #FlinkForward #Flink #Streaming #Ververica #TheRavitShow

How does PlayStation run real time at massive scale. I sat down with Bahar Pattarkine from PlayStation the team to unpack how they use Apache Flink across telemetry and player experiences.What we covered:-- Why they chose Flink and what problem it solved first-- Running 15,000+ events per second, launch peaks, regional latency SLOs, and avoiding hot partitions across titles-- Phasing the move from Kafka consumers to a unified Flink pipeline without double processing during cutover-- How checkpointing and async I/O keep latency low during spikes or failures-- Privacy controls and regional rules enforced in real time-- What Flink simplified in their pipelines and the impact on cost and ops#data #ai #streaming #Flink #Playstation #Ververica #realtimestreaming #theravitshow

#EVOLVE25 London was a clear signal that Big Data is entering its third era, and it is about outcomes, not buzzwords. I sat down with Sergio Gago, CTO, Cloudera and we went straight to the shift everyone is feeling. This era is defined by convergence. The work now is to bring on-prem and cloud together so teams can move fast, stay compliant, and keep costs in check. That is where the real AI wins will come from.Here is what we covered in the interview I am publishing next:- What truly defines the third era of Big Data and how it differs from the last decade- Why convergence matters now for performance, cost, and control- Where Cloudera wins today, and where it chooses not to compete- How a unified data foundation raises trust in AI- The new Cloudera + Dell “AI-in-a-box” approach for private, trusted AI- A five-year view of on-prem, cloud, and AI working together- Cloudera’s vision to support this shift end to endIf you care about building trustworthy AI on real enterprise data, this conversation will be useful. #data #ai #EVOLVE25 #cloudera #theravitshow

Sovereign cloud in Europe just moved from idea to action. At EVOLVE London I sat down with Christopher Royles from Cloudera. Cloudera has been named a launch partner for the new AWS European Sovereign Cloud, and we unpacked what this means for builders, leaders, and regulators across EMEA.Here is what we covered in the interview I am publishing next:- What “sovereign by design” means in practice for data, control planes, encryption, and operational access- How this model helps organizations meet strict European requirements while keeping teams productive- How it connects to Cloudera’s Private AI strategy so enterprises can run AI on their terms- Where sovereign cloud demand is strongest across EMEA and why industries like public sector, financial services, and healthcare are leaning in- A practical path to comply without stalling innovation, from architecture choices to operating modelsIf you care about trusted AI, data control, and real-world compliance in Europe, this conversation will be useful. I will share the full interview with Chris next.#data #ai #sovereign #cloudera #theravitshow

Live from POSSIBLE by Teradata with Sumeet Arora, Chief Product Officer. had a blast chatting with him about five things: Trends. New announcements. Data and AI trends inside the enterprise. Real use cases. What is next for the industry.New announcements -- - Autonomous Customer Intelligence. Turning customer signals into timely actions across the journey.- NewtonX research on AI for customer experience. Where leaders are investing and where gaps still exist.Trends in Data and AI- Moving from pilots to production with tighter links between trusted data and AI.- Clear governance and cost control built in from the start.Use cases- Retention and growth with real-time signals and simple next best actions.- Smarter personalization without copying data all over the place.Future- Faster paths from idea to impact.- Smaller, focused teams shipping measurable outcomes.#data #ai #possible2025 #teradata #theravitshow

WOW! It was so nice to meet the man himself and even interview him on The Ravit Show at Possible 2025, Steve McMillan, President and CEO of Teradata. Getting this time on camera felt special.We kept it human and future focused:- His favorite Possible moment and what it revealed about the crowd- The one belief he hopes people take home and act on- When ideas strike for him, morning or night- The place he goes to dream bigger- What is still on his “possible” bucket listBetween the lines, you will hear the direction Teradata is setting:-- Moving from snapshots to signals so decisions fire in real time-- A cleaner path from data products to activation across the stack-- Agents that don’t just chat but lift outcomes like CLV-- Guardrails and services that help teams run this at scale-- A builder mindset with new tools on the waIf you care about where enterprise CX is heading, you will want to hear this one. I have also shared the link to all announcements from Possible 2025!!!!#data #ai #possible2025 #teradata #theravitshow

Breaking down trust in AI, not just talking about it. I just sat with Manisha Khanna, Global Product Marketing Leader for AI at SAS, to unpack the SAS–IDC Data and AI Pulse. The core theme is simple. Trust drives ROI.Key takeaways:- Trustworthy AI leaders outperform because they do the basics well. Data lineage, access control, model monitoring, and clear ownership.- Order matters. Fix data quality and governance first, then productize, then scale. Skipping steps is how pilots stall.- Guardrails in SAS Viya make “safe by default” real. Clear policies, repeatable workflows, and measurable outcomes.- Agentic AI readiness is not a tool choice. It is about reliable data, governed actions, and feedback loops that teams can audit.Why this matters:Enterprises keep chasing bigger models while the wins come from cleaner foundations. If you want impact, make trust a requirement, not a marketing line.Watch it, share it with your team, and pressure test your own roadmap against these basics.#data #ai #agenticai #sas #theravitshow

Agents are here. Governance decides who wins.I just published my interview with my friend Marinela Profi from SAS. Marinela breaks down agentic AI in a way leaders can use today. Clear. Practical. Actionable.What we covered:- What makes agentic AI different and why enterprises should care- Autonomy levels, decisioning, orchestration, and the human-AI balance- Where teams go wrong: hype vs readiness, data maturity, governance, and missing orchestration- Real use cases on Viya across banking, insurance, and manufacturing- Why “LLMs are not agents” and how to combine deterministic and probabilistic methods with governance- What a CIO or CDO should do now to move from pilots to productionMarinela is sharp and grounded. She touched the important points and kept it real for enterprise teams.The interview is live. Watch it and share your takeaways.