--- title: "VERA Engine" description: "VERA engine delivers 2x the throughput of open-source Flink at 40% lower cost. Auto-optimized stream processing with sub-10ms latency." lastUpdated: 2026-10-14T09:40:33.000Z source_url: html: "https://www.ververica.com/product/vera" md: "https://www.ververica.com/product/vera.md" --- # VERA Engine. Stream Processing, Supercharged. Binary-compatible with Apache Flink. Every existing Flink job runs faster. Zero code changes. - 2x the throughput - 40% lower cost - Sub-10ms latency ## What is the VERA engine? VERA is Ververica’s stream processing engine for Apache Flink workloads. It is binary-compatible with Apache Flink, so existing Flink applications run without code changes, and it speeds up execution through adaptive query planning, optimized memory management, operator fusion, an advanced state backend and JIT compilation. ## Performance Advantages Engine Behind the Platform VERA processes double the volume of open-source Apache Flink on identical hardware. Benchmarked on production workloads, not synthetic tests. Same data, same jobs, twice the speed. Total cost of ownership reduction across compute, operations, and infrastructure. Fewer nodes for the same workload. Lower cloud spend. Smaller operational team. End-to-end processing latency at the 99th percentile under sustained load. From record ingestion to output delivery. Measured, not estimated. Peak throughput on production-grade hardware. Processing at a scale that covers the largest enterprise workloads on the planet. Same workload. Fewer CPUs. Less memory. Smaller cluster. The efficiency gains compound at scale. ## How Does VERA Achieve 2x Performance? Five proprietary optimizations working together. ### Adaptive Query Planning VERA analyzes data characteristics at runtime and adjusts execution plans continuously. Static query plans waste resources on changing data. Adaptive plans do not. ### Optimized Memory Management Custom memory allocation reduces garbage collection pressure. Off-heap state storage eliminates JVM pauses. Predictable latency under sustained high throughput. ### Operator Fusion VERA merges multiple operators into single execution units where safe. Fewer serialization boundaries. Fewer network shuffles. Less overhead per record. ### Advanced State Backend Purpose-built state backend optimized for streaming access patterns. Faster state reads and writes. Incremental checkpointing with minimal I/O overhead. ### JIT Compilation Just-in-time code generation for SQL queries and user-defined functions. Machine-optimized execution paths generated at deployment time, not interpreted at runtime. ## VERA Key Capabilities ### Binary Compatibility Run any existing Apache Flink application on VERA. JARs, connectors, UDFs, and libraries. No recompilation. No code changes. Drop in and run faster. ### SQL and DataStream API Full Flink SQL support for declarative stream processing. Full DataStream API for programmatic control. Both run on the same optimized engine. ### State Management Maintain state across billions of keys with exactly-once guarantees. Queryable state for external access. State migration between application versions without downtime. ### Intelligent Auto-Scaling VERA monitors throughput, backpressure, and resource utilization. Scales parallelism up during traffic spikes and down during quiet periods. No over-provisioning. No manual scaling. ### Event Time and Watermarks Process events based on when they occurred, not when they arrived. Watermark tracking handles late and out-of-order data correctly across distributed processing. ### Distributed Checkpointing Incremental checkpoints with minimal performance impact. Configurable intervals. Automatic recovery from any failure. Zero data loss guaranteed. ## VERA Engine vs. Open-Source Apache Flink | Feature | VERA Engine | Open-Source Flink | | --- | --- | --- | | Throughput | 6.9B records/sec | ~3.4B records/sec | | Latency (p99) | Sub-10ms | 20-50ms | | Resource Efficiency | 52% lower | Baseline | | TCO | 40% lower | Baseline | | Auto-Scaling | Built-in, adaptive | Manual or basic reactive | | Query Optimization | Adaptive, runtime | Static plan | | State Backend | Optimized, proprietary | RocksDB | | Multi-Tenancy | Native | Not supported | | Governance | RBAC, audit, lineage | Not included | | Managed Operations | Full platform | DIY | | Binary Compatibility | Full Flink API | N/A | | Enterprise Support | 24/7, SLA-backed | Community | ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the VERA engine? VERA is Ververica's proprietary stream processing engine, binary-compatible with Apache Flink. It delivers 2x throughput through adaptive query planning, optimized memory management, and operator fusion. Every Flink application runs on VERA without code changes. ### Is VERA a fork of Apache Flink? No. VERA is binary-compatible with Flink, not a fork. It replaces critical execution paths with proprietary optimizations while maintaining full API compatibility. All Flink connectors, libraries, and applications run unchanged on VERA. ### Can I migrate from open-source Flink to VERA without code changes? Yes. Take your existing Flink application JAR and deploy it on the Ververica Platform. No recompilation, no code changes, no connector rewrites. VERA applies all optimizations automatically. State snapshots from open-source Flink are compatible. ### How does VERA achieve 2x throughput? Five optimizations: adaptive query planning adjusts execution at runtime, optimized memory management reduces GC pressure, operator fusion merges execution units, an advanced state backend accelerates reads and writes, and JIT compilation generates machine-optimized code. ### Does VERA support exactly-once processing? Yes. VERA provides end-to-end exactly-once semantics through distributed checkpointing, two-phase commit sinks, and transactional state management. Every record is processed exactly once, even during failures and recovery. ### What programming languages does VERA support? VERA supports Flink SQL, Java, Python, and Scala. SQL analysts and software engineers work on the same engine. All four interfaces produce applications that benefit from VERA's performance optimizations equally.