Cut AWS MSK Costs and Boost Performance: Migrate to Graviton

Migrating from Intel-based instances to AWS Graviton-based instances is one of the most effective ways to cut infrastructure costs and improve performance. But for teams running Amazon MSK (Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka), the migration path is anything but straightforward. Concerns around efforts, compatibility, stability, and downtime often stall these initiatives.

Superstream was built to make complex Kafka infrastructure optimization as simple as possible—and this includes helping customers migrate their MSK workloads to Graviton with zero risk and minimal effort.

Why Graviton Matters for MSK Customers

AWS Graviton processors, built on ARM architecture, offer significant advantages over x86-based Intel instances:

• Up to 24% price/ performance improvement
• Up to 29% higher write and read throughput
• Up to 27% reduction in CPU usage over comparable MSK clusters running on M5 instances.

But these benefits are often out of reach for MSK users due to time and efforts.

Enter Superstream: A Safer, Easier, And Automated Path to Graviton

Superstream is a drop-in optimization layer for Kafka workloads that enables frictionless Kafka configuration, infrastructure, and cost-efficiency improvement.

Here's how Superstream makes the Graviton migration easy:

Step 1: Superstream to auto-discover your AWS MSK clusters

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Step 2-3: Analysis and Optimization identification

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Step 4: Configure Superstream Autoscaler for AWS MSK

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Behind-the-scenes: Rolling Replacement of Brokers

MSK performs a rolling update, replacing one broker at a time:

• Step 1: A broker is taken out of service.
• Step 2: A new broker with the updated instance type is launched.
• Step 3: The new broker joins the cluster.
• Step 4: Partition replicas and leadership roles are reassigned as needed.
• Step 5: The old broker is terminated.

This process is repeated for each broker in the cluster.

Availability and Safety

• Zookeeper remains operational during the change.
• Write/Read continues—data is not lost.
• MSK monitors broker health and will retry steps if something fails.
• The change does not require client-side reconfiguration (brokers retain their DNS endpoints).

You're just a few clicks away from unlocking significantly more value for every dollar you're spending—it's absolutely worth it.