It solves some issues, and creates some, since Northguard isn’t compatible with the current Kafka ecosystem.
As such, you can no longer use existing software that is built on Kafka as-is. It may not be a grave concern for LinkedIn, but it could be for others that currently benefit from using the existing Kafka ecosystem.
Yeah, it's definitely a significant shift. The Xinfra component helps with Kafka compatibility, but that still has quite a bit of complexity to it. Also, it's written in C++, so that requires a different mindset to operate.
As such, you can no longer use existing software that is built on Kafka as-is. It may not be a grave concern for LinkedIn, but it could be for others that currently benefit from using the existing Kafka ecosystem.