The Apache Flink PMC is pleased to announce the release of Apache Flink 1.18.0. As usual, we are looking at a packed release with a wide variety of improvements and new features. Overall, 174 people contributed to this release completing 18 FLIPS and 700+ issues. Thank you! Let's dive into the highlights.

38% of data teams spend between 20% and 40% of their time fixing data pipelines¹. Combating these data failures is a costly and stressful activity for those looking to deliver reliable data to end users. Organizations using Azure Data Factory can now benefit from the integration with Kensu to expedite this process. Their data teams can now observe data within their Azure Data Factory pipelines and receive valuable insights into data lineage, schema changes, and performance metrics.

We’ve all heard that data helps businesses make better decisions. The good news? This isn’t just speculation: research shows that companies who use data to drive decision making increase revenues by an average of more than 8%, are 23 times more likely to attract new customers, and are 19 times more likely to be profitable as a result.

A patient interaction turned into clinician notes in seconds, increasing patient engagement and clinical efficiency. Novel compounds designed with desired properties, accelerating drug discovery. Realistic synthetic data created at scale, expediting research in rare under-addressed disease areas.