Graphiant Named Confluent 2027 Data Streaming Startup of the Year for the Americas

We’re excited to announce that Graphiant is Confluent’s 2027 Data Streaming Startup of the Year for the Americas. The award recognizes startups that use data streaming not simply as infrastructure, but as a foundational capability behind differentiated products, better customer experiences, and scalable business models.

Founded in 2020 and based in San Jose, California, Graphiant is redefining enterprise networking with a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform that provides connectivity, observability and governance for agents, user and networks to distribute and consume data globally while embedding security into post quantum secure fabric. The result is less complexity, better network performance, and a stronger foundation for the growing demands of cloud and AI applications.

Behind that platform is real-time data streaming. Graphiant uses Apache Kafka® on Confluent Cloud to continuously process telemetry and performance metrics from across its network, giving teams the operational visibility to monitor network health, identify issues early, and deliver reliable connectivity to customers.

The Challenge: Making Complex Networks Simpler and More Observable

Enterprise networks have never been more complex. Organizations must connect distributed offices, cloud environments, data centers, and applications while maintaining the performance, security, and reliability their businesses depend on. Traditional architectures often rely on fragmented infrastructure and management tools, which makes it hard to keep a consistent view of network activity and catch emerging problems quickly.

Graphiant takes a different approach. Its Network-as-a-Service platform delivers secure connectivity, integrated security, and network visibility as a single service, helping customers simplify operations and reduce infrastructure costs.

But delivering reliable networking at scale takes more than connectivity. It also takes continuous insight into what’s happening across the network. That’s where real-time data streaming comes in.

How It Works: Turning Network Telemetry into Actionable Intelligence

Graphiant uses Confluent Cloud as the streaming foundation for its network observability architecture. Telemetry and performance metrics generated by network edge devices stream continuously through Apache Kafka® on Confluent Cloud. That data supports network health monitoring, traffic analysis, and alerting, and it also feeds downstream analytical systems.

Graphiant integrates its streaming data with Apache Pinot through StarTree and with TimescaleDB, powering network analytics and customer-facing dashboards that show how the network is performing. This architecture helps Graphiant identify issues, analyze traffic patterns, and maintain the reliability customers expect from a managed networking platform.

Because Graphiant runs on a fully managed service rather than operating its own Kafka infrastructure, it can absorb swings in telemetry volume as network activity grows—without taking on the operational burden.

Built on Confluent

Here’s what the Confluent foundation gives Graphiant:

• Real-time network observability: Telemetry and performance metrics stream continuously from edge devices to support network health monitoring, traffic analysis, and alerting.

• Streaming analytics: Network data flows to Apache Pinot through StarTree and to TimescaleDB, supporting operational analytics and customer-facing dashboards.

• Managed scalability: Confluent Cloud handles variable streaming workloads at scale, so Graphiant’s engineers can focus on the product rather than on running Kafka.

• A foundation for future growth: A scalable data streaming architecture is in place as Graphiant expands production capacity, adds customers, and supports increasingly complex network environments.

Why Graphiant Stands Out

• Reimagining enterprise networking: Graphiant replaces fragmented infrastructure with one Network-as-a-Service platform that combines connectivity, security, and operational visibility.

• Real-time intelligence as a product capability: Streaming network telemetry lets Graphiant monitor conditions, identify issues, and give customers actionable insight into network performance.

• Ready for what’s next: The architecture positions Graphiant to support more sophisticated streaming analytics, automation, and potentially AI-driven network operations as its platform evolves.

What’s Next: Scaling Real-Time Network Intelligence

As Graphiant expands its production footprint and brings on more customers, including telecommunications providers, it continues to invest in the scalability and operational efficiency of its data infrastructure.

Today, Graphiant manages its own Apache Flink® environment for stream processing. Next, the company plans to evaluate serverless Apache Flink on Confluent Cloud to simplify operations and reduce the engineering effort of managing streaming infrastructure. Its roadmap also includes further production expansion and the adoption of Schema Registry, part of Confluent Stream Governance, to strengthen data management as its streaming architecture grows.

Longer term, Graphiant has an opportunity to build toward a Streamhouse architecture: an open, vendor-neutral pattern for continuously capturing, transforming, governing, and serving the current state of the business. Applied to network data, that would make trusted, continuously updated information available across operational systems, analytics platforms, and potentially AI-powered applications. Confluent’s Data Streaming Platform provides the components to build one—helping Graphiant simplify network operations while delivering increasingly intelligent, automated services to its customers.

Celebrating Innovation in Data Streaming

Graphiant joins a growing community of startups showing how real-time data streaming can transform industries. Its recognition follows that of Focal Systems, Confluent’s inaugural Americas Data Streaming Startup of the Year, honored in 2025 for its use of AI and real-time data streaming to transform retail operations. Reflecting on the past year, Focal Systems CEO Kevin Johnson shared:

“Being named Confluent’s inaugural Startup of the Year has been a tremendous opportunity for Focal Systems. Beyond the recognition itself, Confluent has been an outstanding partner, helping us amplify our story, reach new audiences, and showcase how real-time data streaming is transforming our industry.” – Kevin Johnson, CEO, Focal Systems

From retail automation to next-generation enterprise networking, companies like Focal Systems and Graphiant show how startups are putting real-time data at the center of their products and redefining what’s possible in their industries.

Congratulations to the Graphiant team on being named Confluent’s 2027 Data Streaming Startup of the Year for the Americas. Your work demonstrates how real-time data streaming can make complex infrastructure more intelligent, observable, and responsive—and sets an example for the next generation of startups building on Confluent.

Get Started

Learn more about Graphiant and its Network-as-a-Service platform at graphiant.com. Then build your own real-time foundation: sign up for Confluent Cloud to manage Kafka and Flink in minutes, or explore Confluent for Startups for credits and expert technical help.

Apache®, Apache Kafka®, Apache Flink®, Apache Pinot, and associated open source project names are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. No endorsement by the Apache Software Foundation is implied by using these marks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.