But I didn't say it is dangerous to call it a database. I said you should call it a database to make it more accessible because deep down it is, it's just a very low level one. (Appologies about my use of a double negative in that sentence). Ultimetly the question is can Kafka replace your database as a long term data store and it can. Of course to get all the traditional read functionality of databases you need to use materialized stores but it just requires a shift in thinking from the traditional DB way of doing things.