#16 AWS User Group Meetup - 02/2026

Dear AWS User Group Members,

we’re happy to announce our next AWS User Group Bonn meetup!
We’re excited to share that our hosts will once again be our friends from Qvest Digital 🎉

We’ve got two great talks lined up:

• Vadym Kazulkin will give a practical intro to Amazon Aurora DSQL and modern serverless app design, and
• Endah Bongo-Awah will share real-world lessons from running Kafka in production (including what can go wrong 😅).

📅 Date: 11.02.2026
📍 Location: Qvest Digital AG, Am Dickobstkreuz 10, 53121 Bonn

🕕 Agenda

6:00 PM – Doors open
Grab a drink, settle in, and catch up with fellow AWS builders.

6:30 PM – Talk 1 – Vadym Kazulkin
🗣️ Build Modern Applications with Amazon Aurora DSQL
As organizations modernize applications for scalability and agility, database architecture becomes crucial.
In this session, Vadym introduces Amazon Aurora DSQL, a serverless, distributed SQL database designed for next-generation workloads.
You’ll learn how to:
- Build modern serverless applications using Amazon Aurora DSQL, Amazon API Gateway, and AWS Lambda
- Understand performance characteristics, scaling behavior, and cost considerations
- Evaluate current limitations and when Aurora DSQL is the right choice
- Compare Aurora DSQL with alternatives such as Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Aurora Serverless v2

7:30 PM – Talk 2 – Endah Bongo-Awah
🗣️ Kafka is powerful — but it’s also a trap for the unprepared
From the outside, Kafka looks like just another message queue. But under the hood? It's a minefield of subtle misconfigurations, scaling headaches, and mysterious consumer lag. Ask our Kafka Helpdesk—we've seen it all.
Typical cries for help:

• “We need to clean up unused Kafka topics after a merge request… how do we find them safely?”
• “Authentication works, but our consumer group still can't read from the topic.”
• “A single malformed message in PROD is crashing our jobs!”

In this session, we’ll take you on a journey through the most common Kafka anti-patterns—things that look fine until your cluster goes sideways. I’ll also show you the patterns, tools, and AWS-native solutions that have helped us tame large-scale Kafka deployments.
You’ll leave with:

• Real-world Kafka horror stories—and how to avoid them
• Production-proven design patterns (schema registries, tiered storage, ACL strategies, observability)
• Tips to cut operational cost and reduce cognitive overhead
• A blueprint for keeping your Kafka stack lean, secure, and future-proof

Whether you’re a developer, DevOps engineer, or architect, this talk will help you avoid the traps - and sleep better at night knowing your Kafka setup won’t wake you at 3AM.

8:15 PM – Networking, snacks & drinks
Relax, connect, and exchange ideas with the local AWS community.
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We’re looking forward to another great evening of learning and networking in Bonn.

Best regards,
Andreas & Johannes