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By Omnia Ibrahim | Thursday, October 22, 2026 We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka 4.4.0. This release contains many new features and improvements. This blog post will highlight some of the more prominent ones. For a full list of changes, be sure to check the release notes. With 25 KIPs and 963 commits since 4.3.0, this release introduces many new features, improvements and bug fixes to all the components.

A new Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) study commissioned by Confluent, an IBM company and data streaming platform, found that a representative composite organization achieved 137% ROI, USD 2.1 million in net present value and a 10-month payback period. Those are meaningful results. The ROI is notable. What's more interesting is where the value came from. Modernization is often framed as an infrastructure problem. Leaders compare platform costs, migration and operating costs.

Trust is foundational to how Confluent designs, operates, and governs its products. Confluent's Trust Principles shape everything from how Confluent Cloud is engineered to how it is monitored and audited. Each principle is backed by specific, independently verified controls.