(funky music)
(applause)
- At this point I think it'll
be useful just to let you
guys hear from firsthand,
actual user of Kafka.
So for that I like to welcome
to the stage Chris Kasten
from Walmart cloud.
(funky music)
(applause)
So a lot of people here
of course know Walmart.
For me I think what impressed
me is the growth of Walmart
with all this heavy competition from those
eCommerce companies.
Many of you probably do know
that Walmart's market cap
actually grew 25% just this year
and it reached like an all time high.
And a lot of that probably
has to do with this technology
and maybe the usage of Kafka.
(laughter)
So.
(laughter)
So, so welcome Chris to the stage.
To get started maybe you can
just tell us a little bit
about yourself and your journey in Kafka.
- Yeah sure.
First I wanna thank you
for having me be part of
your keynote.
You know it's great be here.
I've been following Kafka
since this began in 2011.
And became an amazing platform
and it's a real testament
to the power of open source.
So you know congratulations
to you and Confluent in the
success that you guys have had.
Myself you know I've been
fortunate enough to be a part
of multiple fortune 500
companies over the last
20 plus years.
Built a lot of high
scale systems and data,
core services and frameworks, telemetry.
As well as edge.
And in the data platform
space my kind of history with
Kafka started out literally at eBay.
In 2011 Kafka came out, we
started playing with it,
working with it.
And we also came to the same
realization that LinkedIn did.
Which was we need what we
call the near real time
data platform.
You had online, you had offline.
But we needed this thing, this
near real time data platform
and we needed something to
be the backbone of that.
So in about 2013, 14, we
started building that system
and we chose Kafka.
And actually we built that system out.
It runs actually at eBay today.
And we also built it out for
PayPal because we actually had
joint platform for a while there.
And it's all still running up at PayPal.
I think they do about five
billion events per day
is what I last read.
So it worked out well there.
Built out a huge enablement for security,
for personalization, for fraud detection,
for search engine optimization,
for all sorts of different
new cases it enabled there.
And then fast forward three
and a half years later,
or three and a half years
ago I came to Walmart,
and sure enough we need
that same near real time
data platform.
- Right.
- So once again we chose Kafka.
- Sounds good.
Yeah, okay so now about Walmart.
Maybe just tell us a
little bit about Walmart
and its evolution of the
technology as you see it.
- Yeah, so at Walmart
about five years ago we had
a CEO come in.
His name is Doug McMillon.
And he started the digital
transformation of Walmart.
So Walmart was a traditional
brick and mortar retailer
and he started this digital transformation
and making huge investments in technology.
And you see that now.
You see that we have online grocery,
that you come and pick it up at the store.
Or we can deliver to your house.
We have two day deliver,
one day delivery now.
We have the kiosks where
you can order it online
and we have the big orange
tower that you pull up,
put in your QR code and it
gives you your products.
So all of these technology investments
are going into the company
and you see it reflected
in both our growth as a company
and our marketplace stock.
And Kafka has actually
played a very big role
in that in providing that
near real time data system
or platform that is
messaging throughout the
entire infrastructure.
- That's good.
So what are some of the use
cases of Kafka at Walmart?
- Yeah so at, we use it as
I said as this backbone,
this streaming backbone.
So we've used it in our
near real time inventory.
So real time enterprise inventory systems.
Actually they're gonna
be giving a presentation
on that at 11:40 today so
there's a plug for my guys
in the crowd.
So we've used it there.
We've used it for fulfillment.
We've used it for security,
we've used it for fraud.
We use it for all of the
time that you interact
with Walmart.com.
Every single click is actually
streaming out to Kafka
and then it's democratized,
the democratization of data.
For business, for security,
for all different aspects
that wanna consume from it.
So you've got all that flow of data
feeding the business and
providing all of that capability.
- Yeah, that's great.
So you mentioned, earlier
you mentioned like a
an omni channel right?
So one of the things that's
in my mind but not probably
not the audience's mind is
about the presence of the
local stores in retailers like Walmart.
A lot of eCommerce
companies don't have that.
So are those local stores
an asset or a liability
to companies like Walmart?
- That's a great question.
Actually they're a strategic asset
and a benefit for us in that Walmart.
So most people don't know this.
There's a Walmart within 10
miles of 90% of the population
of the United States.
So within 10 miles of
90% of the population of
the United States we have
a place that you can come
and interact with us.
So however you wanna
interact with us in that
omni channel customer experience.
If you wanna order online
and have it delivered
to your house.
If you wanna order it
online and pick it up
at the store.
If you wanna come into the store.
Everybody wants to shop differently
and we provide them that
omni channel experience.
And we're able to provide
that supply chain.
We built that supply chain over decades
and it allows us to have
a competitive advantage
over the rest of eCommerce.
- Yeah, that sounds very interesting.
Okay, so another question
is about the grocery store.
So that's like a big part
right of a lot of retailers
and within Walmart I
understand that's actually
a growing business.
Can you talk about some of
the experience you guys had
on the grocery store?
- Yeah grocery is growing huge.
It's one of our fastest growing segments.
It's great.
You know you got a soccer
mom or dad at the game.
They're ordering their groceries.
They punch it in.
And then on the way home
they choose when they
wanna pick it up.
They pull up, within
five minutes we walk out,
we put it in the back of
the car and they drive away.
We get selfies all the time
with moms with sleeping kids
in the back of the car just
saying thank you so much,
you saved me from dragging
them into the store
and we just pull up and give them that.
So you know Kafka also enables
that from the beginning
to the end.
From the time that they're
interacting with the app,
we're actually taking all
that user behavioral data,
it's going into Kafka.
When they place the order
our order management system,
it flows into Kafka.
When they actually go to the store
and they're picking, those
events flow into Kafka.
And when they actually
fulfill it that event goes
into Kafka.
So it's all throughout
the entire ecosystem.
But we're not stopping there actually.
We actually have announced
that this fall we're going to
for a million customers
in three regions actually
deliver groceries to your
refrigerator in your house.
So we now have a video camera
mounted to our associate.
They walk up, they have
a smart box on the door.
They go in, they start the video camera,
it live feeds to your phone.
You see them walk in, they see
him stock your refrigerator.
They leave, you turn off the video,
and it's now delivered
into your refrigerator.
So even moreso.
So a lot of great things
coming from Walmart.
We didn't touch about,
that's 11 billion events
per day that we process in Kafka.
So 8,500 nodes that we manage.
And it all runs all of
this great infrastructure.
So we're just doing great things,
having a lot of fun at Walmart.
- Alright, that's great,
that's interesting.
Okay, one last question from me.
Of course Walmart is a
customer of Confluent
and so what's your guys'
experience with managers
like Confluent?
- Yeah we know we are a $500
billion in revenue company
so every second counts.
That's millions of dollars
and having Confluent
as that expert for us to
provide us that support
if we need it, and also partner
with us in best practices,
blueprints, and also providing
you know new features
to the product.
That's been a great experience.
So we enjoy our
partnership with Confluent.
We really find them as a valuable partner.
So it's been great.
- Great, so with this thanks for coming.
And then thanks for making
Walmart not only just
a good place to shop but
also a great place to work
it sounds like it.
- Yeah, thanks for having us
and letting us kind of show
some of the fun we're having at Walmart
and the great things that
we're doing with Kafka.
- Alright, okay, thank you again.
(applause)
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