Goodbye Zookeeper, Hello KRaft
Written by
Sugam Sharma
.
Co-Founder & CIO
Published on
Apr 2, 2025
What’s Changed in Kafka and What It Means for Real-Time Data Platforms
Apache Kafka 4.0 marks a pivotal shift in the architecture of the world’s most widely adopted event streaming platform. The most significant change?
The complete removal of ZooKeeper in favor of a native consensus protocol called KRaft (Kafka Raft). This transition has been years in the making — and with 4.0, the future is finally here.
Let’s dive into what changed, why it matters, and how platforms like Condense are already ahead of the curve by operationalizing this transformation — and more — for industry-specific use cases.
The Role of ZooKeeper (Before Kafka 4.0)
Historically, Kafka used Apache ZooKeeper for:
Storing and managing metadata (e.g., broker list, partitions, topic configs)
Controller election and cluster coordination
Access control policies and cluster-wide state
However, ZooKeeper came with several challenges:
Operational overhead (managing and scaling two distributed systems)
Fragile failover during controller elections
Latency during metadata propagation
Complexity in upgrades and security configurations
KRaft: Kafka Raft Metadata Mode
KRaft (Kafka Raft) eliminates the ZooKeeper dependency and implements a native, quorum-based metadata system within Kafka itself.
What Changed with KRaft:
Feature | Zookeeper Based Kafka | KRaft Based Kafka (4.0+) |
|---|---|---|
Metadata Management | Handled by ZooKeeper | Handled by Kafka controllers using Raft |
Controller Election | Managed by ZooKeeper | Built-in Raft consensus protocol |
System Complexity | Two systems to manage | Kafka is now standalone |
Startup Time | Slower due to ZooKeeper handshake | Significantly faster cluster boot |
Scalability | Harder to scale ZooKeeper clusters | Easier to scale KRaft controllers |
Upgrade Path | Multi-step with ZK version dependency | Simplified Kafka-native upgrades |
Benefits of KRaft
Simplified Deployment: No external coordination system required
Better Resilience: Faster failover and self-healing metadata replication
Operational Efficiency: Uniform config, easier security, and unified logs
Faster Controller Recovery: Lower downtime under broker failure
Improved Developer Experience: Single system to monitor and configure
Migration Note
Kafka 4.0 is KRaft-only — there is no fallback to ZooKeeper.
If you’re still running ZooKeeper-based clusters:
Migrate to KRaft mode in Kafka 3.5–3.9
Verify metadata migration and topic integrity
Then upgrade to Kafka 4.0
Why This Shift Matters
KRaft is not just about removing ZooKeeper — it’s about transforming Kafka into a self-contained, enterprise-grade, cloud-native platform.
It opens the door for:
More elastic deployments
Multi-tenant streaming services
Better security integration
Cleaner DevOps pipelines
But here’s the challenge: Kafka is still a foundational layer — not a business solution.
Turning KRaft-enabled Kafka into a vertical-ready, decision-driving system still requires time, expertise, and tooling.
Condense: Built for the Post-ZooKeeper Era
Condense is a real-time event processing platform that has been built on modern Kafka-native foundations from the beginning — with KRaft-mode compatibility fully baked in.
But more importantly, Condense doesn’t stop at infrastructure. It provides what Kafka lacks: Verticalized intelligence and actionable outcomes.
Why Condense is Ahead
While Kafka 4.0 offers a cleaner, faster backbone, Condense adds the muscle and brain on top of it:
Kafka (4.0) | Condense |
|---|---|
KRaft Metadata | Fully adopted, zero-ZooKeeper design from day one |
Share Groups (KIP-932) | Enhanced with per-entity message routing |
Observability via metrics (KIP-1076) | Real-time dashboards, latency tracing, anomaly detection |
Event streams | Enriched with schema-aware pipelines, low-code transforms |
Raw ingestion | Transformed into contextual, domain-specific signals |
Developer APIs | Combined with UI-based orchestration and trigger workflows |
Vertical Intelligence: Where Condense Delivers the Edge
Kafka’s improvements make it easier to stream and scale — but they don’t deliver business context.
Condense bridges that gap with:
Mobility: Route deviation alerts, geofencing triggers, language-localized notifications
Manufacturing: Predictive maintenance pipelines, downtime alerting, machine rule engines
Energy: Real-time load balancing, outage detection, automated restoration flows
Finance: Fraud event detection, AML pipelines, audit-ready event trails
The transition from ZooKeeper to KRaft is more than just a technical milestone — it’s a turning point in Kafka’s evolution toward simplification, reliability, and scale.
But adopting Kafka 4.0 is just the beginning. Condense takes Kafka further — turning raw event streams into verticalized, real-time intelligence. If you’re looking to operationalize Kafka 4.0 not just at the infrastructure layer but across vertical workflows and outcomes, Condense is built for exactly that future — and it’s already delivering it today.
Ready to Build Real-Time, Contextual Intelligence with Kafka 4.0 at the Core?
Contact Us for a demo, architecture consultation, or integration guide.
