Case Study: Essendant improves Apache Kafka governance with Aiven Klaw

Essendant Embraces Klaw to improve Apache Kafka® Governance

Essendant, a wholesale distribution and fulfillment services company, needed a better way to govern its growing Apache Kafka environment as usage expanded across teams and use cases. The company was relying on manual processes for creating topics, managing ACLs, and handling Kafka access, which made governance time-consuming and limited agility. The customer worked with Aiven and its open source governance tool, Klaw, to address these challenges.

Aiven implemented Klaw as a centralized, web-based governance layer for Apache Kafka, enabling self-service requests for topics, schemas, ACLs, and connectors while maintaining control and security. The result was faster access for developers, less burden on the middleware team, and better visibility into Kafka issues; Essendant said Klaw saves about five or six hours each week. Aiven’s solution also helped Essendant improve access management across business units and prepare to expand governance to Schema Registry workflows.

Essendant

Andy Kiss

SVP of IT and CIO