# Overview

K.S.I. (Kafka Service for Iceberg) is a Kafka proxy that serves Iceberg data to Kafka clients. K.S.I. combines a real-time dataset stored in Apache Kafka with a long retention, hig volume set stroed in Apache Iceberg.

K.S.I.. enables:

* Cost savings in Kafka - Storage costs can be saved in Kafka by reducing retention of Kafka topics and offloading the data that would be retained into Iceberg. K.S.I. means that Kafka clients have the same experience regardless of the underlying storage platform.
* Unified governance across Kafka and Iceberg - Extend schemas, acls and other governance parameters from Kafka into Iceberg to provide a unified, seamlessly evolvable experience.

<figure><img src="/files/0vwEEmhw51roBKDOFgaq" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.streambased.io/deploy-and-operate/streambased-platform/kafka-service-for-iceberg-k.s.i./overview.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.