This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club. #GOTOcon #GOTObookclub
http://gotopia.tech/bookclub

Ekaterina Gorshkova - Apache Kafka Engineer at SOFTEC & Author of "Kafka for Architects"
Viktor Gamov - Principal Developer Advocate at Confluent & Co-Author of "Kafka in Action" @ViktorGamov 

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/episodes/440

RESOURCES
Ekaterina
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterina-gorshkova-978bb6
https://medium.com/@katyagorshkova

Viktor
https://bsky.app/profile/gamussa.dev
https://x.com/gAmUssA
https://github.com/gamussa
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikgamov
https://gamov.io

Links
45% off discount code (expires on 25 May 2026): GOTOKGKafka
Affiliate link: https://hubs.la/Q044HgTv
https://current.confluent.io/london
https://youtu.be/2l-JsB10WaI
https://youtu.be/lDT2DBaNRC4
https://youtu.be/Ecg7lvvm8aU
https://youtu.be/qjTZ4UeJdoI
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https://youtu.be/6IcCTLggNwU
https://youtu.be/b3UA4vGVnTw
https://youtu.be/STKCRSUsyP0
https://youtu.be/DkNeyCW-eH0
https://youtu.be/45geuWUJEQg

DESCRIPTION
Apache Kafka has evolved far beyond a simple message broker — it has become a foundational layer for modern enterprise software. In this GOTO Book Club episode, Ekaterina Gorshkova, author of "Kafka for Architects", shares how her decade-long journey with Kafka — starting in a Czech bank's integration team in 2015 — shaped her understanding of what it really takes to design Kafka-based systems at scale. The conversation covers core architectural decisions, real-world patterns for enterprise integration, the role of Kafka Streams, and how to avoid the classic pitfalls of building systems that "only three engineers understand".

The episode also looks forward: Ekaterina and host Viktor Gamov explore how Kafka is increasingly becoming the connective tissue for AI-driven systems, acting as an orchestration layer between intelligent agents, real-time data, and business workflows. Her book's central argument is that while AI and tooling change fast, the fundamental knowledge of how to design robust, event-driven systems is durable and career-proof. Kafka for Architects is framed not just as a technical manual, but as a roadmap for architects who want to get Kafka right from day one — requirements, design, testing, and all.

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
02:14 How a bank integration team fell in love with Kafka
04:46 Kafka Streams: The underdog that replaced a monolith
12:04 What «Kafka for Architects» teaches you
17:45 Building real-time ML with no database (yes, really)
20:56 Kafka in the age of AI & what comes next
26:37 Outro

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Ekaterina Gorshkova • Kafka for Architects • https://amzn.to/42mDarU
Dylan Scott, Viktor Gamov & Dave Klein • Kafka in Action • https://amzn.to/4vJ3Kcj
Viktor Gamov, Tartakovsky, Rasputnis & Fain • Enterprise Web Development • https://amzn.to/3CezL0R
Shapira, Palino, Sivaram & Petty • Kafka: The Definitive Guide • https://amzn.to/3RPtdLP
Bill Bejeck • Kafka Streams in Action • https://amzn.to/3CGJiiM

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GOTO Conferences

A podcast conversation between Viktor Gamov (Confluent) and Ekaterina Gorshkova, author of the new book 'Kafka for Architects'. They discuss her journey into Kafka starting around 2015, real-world use cases and failure patterns (organizational challenges, data contracts, schema compatibility), Kafka anti-patterns (request-response, batch processing), Kafka's role in AI-driven architectures and agentic systems, and the evolving streaming landscape including Apache Flink as a successor to KSQL DB. The conversation emphasizes that Kafka failures are usually organizational rather than technical.

Kafka for Architects • Ekaterina Gorshkova & Viktor Gamov • GOTO 2026