Kai Waehner

bridging the gap between technical innovation and business value for real-time data streaming and applied AI.

YAML vs XML vs JSON: History, Trade-offs, and Where Each Wins in the Age of Agentic AI

XML, JSON, and YAML were built for different jobs in different eras. This post covers where each came from, how…

1 day ago

Why Databricks and Snowflake Speak the Kafka Protocol: Ingestion vs. Architecture

Databricks and Snowflake now speak the Kafka protocol. But using the Kafka API to feed a lakehouse is very different…

4 days ago

Choosing an ERP for Manufacturing: How AI Is Reshaping the Vendor Landscape

ERP vendor selection for manufacturing is not a product decision. It is a strategic bet on fit, total cost, and…

1 week ago

Process Intelligence Explained: Mining, Orchestration, and the Decision Gate

Process intelligence is not a single tool. It combines process mining, process orchestration, and a decision gate into one architecture…

2 weeks ago

ERP Migration to SAP S/4HANA and Beyond: Lessons Learned from German Manufacturing

ERP modernization fails when the technology leads and the process work follows. Three German manufacturers ran their migrations differently, on…

3 weeks ago

Beyond Enterprise Data Lineage: The Case for a Platform-Independent Data Catalog

Most organizations start their data governance journey by asking how to track where data comes from and where it goes.…

1 month ago

Data Ownership in the Age of Agentic AI: Why SAP’s API Policy Forces a Data Integration Reckoning for Every Enterprise

Every enterprise is being told to go agentic. Meanwhile, the platforms holding your most critical business data are tightening control…

2 months ago

Flink CEP and Agentic AI: Real-Time Pattern Detection as the Foundation for Autonomous Decisions

AI agents fail in production when they are connected directly to raw event streams. Flink CEP is the missing layer…

2 months ago

Complex Event Processing (CEP) with Apache Flink: What It Is and When (Not) to Use It

Complex Event Processing is the most underused capability in Apache Flink. It detects meaningful event sequences in real time, fires…

2 months ago

MCP vs. REST/HTTP API vs. Kafka: The Architect’s Guide to Agentic AI Integration

MCP, REST/HTTP APIs, and Apache Kafka are not alternatives. They solve different problems at different layers of the architecture. This…

3 months ago