diff --git a/lib/kafkaloghandler/kafkaloghandler/kafkaloghandler.py b/lib/kafkaloghandler/kafkaloghandler/kafkaloghandler.py
index d7e5352..b5a2a06 100644
--- a/lib/kafkaloghandler/kafkaloghandler/kafkaloghandler.py
+++ b/lib/kafkaloghandler/kafkaloghandler/kafkaloghandler.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 # kafkaloghandler - logging handler that sends to Kafka
 
 import json
-import kafka
+import confluent_kafka
 import logging
 import sys
 import time
@@ -36,33 +36,30 @@
 
         logging.Handler.__init__(self)
 
-        try:
-            self.producer = kafka.KafkaProducer(
-                bootstrap_servers=bootstrap_servers,
-
-                # Replace unserializable items with repr version.
-                # Otherwise, the entire log message is discarded if
-                # it contains any unserializable fields
-                value_serializer=lambda val: json.dumps(
-                    val,
-                    separators=(',', ':'),
-                    default=lambda o: repr(o),
-                    )
-                )
-
-        except kafka.errors.KafkaError, e:
-            print "Kafka Error: %s" % e
-            # die if there's an error
-            sys.exit(1)
-
+        self.bootstrap_servers = bootstrap_servers
         self.topic = topic
         self.key = key
         self.flatten = flatten
         self.blacklist = blacklist
         self.timeout = timeout
+        self.producer = None
+
+    def _connect(self):
+
+        try:
+            producer_config = {
+                'bootstrap.servers': ','.join(self.bootstrap_servers),
+            }
+
+            self.producer = confluent_kafka.Producer(**producer_config)
+
+        except confluent_kafka.KafkaError, e:
+            print "Kafka Error: %s" % e
+            # die if there's an error
+            sys.exit(1)
 
     def _flatten(self, ns, toflatten, maxdepth):
-        """ flatten dicts creating a key_subkey_subsubkey_... hierarchy """
+        """ flatten dicts creating a key.subkey.subsubkey... hierarchy """
 
         # avoid recursivly flattening forever
         if maxdepth < 1:
@@ -72,7 +69,7 @@
 
         for k, v in toflatten.iteritems():
 
-            prefix = "%s_%s" % (ns, k)
+            prefix = "%s.%s" % (ns, k)
 
             if isinstance(v, dict):
                 flattened.update(self._flatten(prefix, v, maxdepth-1))
@@ -97,13 +94,30 @@
 
             recvars[k] = v
 
-        self.producer.send(self.topic, key=self.key, value=recvars)
+        # Replace unserializable items with repr version.
+        # Otherwise, the log message may be discarded if it contains any
+        # unserializable fields
+        json_recvars = json.dumps(
+            recvars,
+            separators=(',', ':'),
+            default=lambda o: repr(o),
+            )
+
+        if self.producer is None:
+            self._connect()
+
+        try:
+            self.producer.produce(self.topic, json_recvars, self.key)
+
+        except confluent_kafka.KafkaError, e:
+            print "Kafka Error: %s" % e
+            # currently don't do anything on failure...
+            pass
 
     def flush(self):
-        self.producer.flush(self.timeout)
 
-    def close(self):
-        self.producer.close(self.timeout)
+        if self.producer:
+            self.producer.flush(self.timeout)
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
diff --git a/lib/kafkaloghandler/setup.py b/lib/kafkaloghandler/setup.py
index 9dbcbb2..cba89ff 100644
--- a/lib/kafkaloghandler/setup.py
+++ b/lib/kafkaloghandler/setup.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
     packages=['kafkaloghandler'],
     license='Apache v2',
     install_requires=[
-        'kafka>=1.3.5',
+        'confluent-kafka>=0.11.5',
         ],
     include_package_data=True,
     zip_safe=False,
diff --git a/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/default.py b/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/default.py
index 36767e3..2c4e6d9 100644
--- a/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/default.py
+++ b/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/default.py
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-
 # Copyright 2017-present Open Networking Foundation
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
@@ -13,7 +12,6 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-
 DEFAULT_VALUES = {
     'xos_dir': '/opt/xos',
 
@@ -62,5 +60,6 @@
     },
     'node_key': '/opt/cord_profile/node_key',
     'config_dir': '/etc/xos/sync',
-    'backoff_disabled': True
+    'backoff_disabled': True,
+    'kafka_bootstrap_servers': ['cord-kafka:9092'],
 }
diff --git a/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/synchronizer-config-schema.yaml b/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/synchronizer-config-schema.yaml
index 37876ad..a9ae095 100644
--- a/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/synchronizer-config-schema.yaml
+++ b/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/synchronizer-config-schema.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-
 # Copyright 2017-present Open Networking Foundation
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
@@ -13,7 +12,6 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-
 map:
   name:
     type: str
@@ -78,6 +76,10 @@
       kind:
         type: str
         required: False
+  kafka_bootstrap_servers:
+    type: seq
+    sequence:
+      - type: str
   event_bus:
     type: map
     required: False
diff --git a/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/xos-config-schema.yaml b/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/xos-config-schema.yaml
index d897e76..0705630 100644
--- a/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/xos-config-schema.yaml
+++ b/lib/xos-config/xosconfig/xos-config-schema.yaml
@@ -40,3 +40,7 @@
     type: any
   xos_dir:
     type: str
+  kafka_bootstrap_servers:
+    type: seq
+    sequence:
+      - type: str
diff --git a/lib/xos-kafka/MANIFEST.in b/lib/xos-kafka/MANIFEST.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9561fb1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/xos-kafka/MANIFEST.in
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+include README.rst
diff --git a/lib/xos-kafka/README.rst b/lib/xos-kafka/README.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4e5937
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/xos-kafka/README.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+XOSKafka
+========
+
+Wraps Kafka libraries, handling errors and aggregating connection to producer
diff --git a/lib/xos-kafka/setup.py b/lib/xos-kafka/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4486f19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/xos-kafka/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+# Copyright 2018-present Open Networking Foundation
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+from xosutil.autoversion_setup import setup_with_auto_version
+from xosutil.version import __version__
+
+
+def readme():
+    with open('README.rst') as f:
+        return f.read()
+
+
+setup_with_auto_version(
+    name='xoskafka',
+    version=__version__,
+    description='Wrapper around kafka for XOS',
+    long_description=readme(),
+    classifiers=[
+        'License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License',
+    ],
+    author='Zack Williams',
+    author_email='zdw@opennetworking.org',
+    packages=['xoskafka'],
+    license='Apache v2',
+    install_requires=[
+        'confluent-kafka>=0.11.5',
+        'xosconfig>=2.1.0',
+        'multistructlog>=1.5',
+        ],
+    include_package_data=True,
+    zip_safe=False,
+    )
diff --git a/lib/xos-kafka/xoskafka/__init__.py b/lib/xos-kafka/xoskafka/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69f5a32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/xos-kafka/xoskafka/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Copyright 2018-present Open Networking Foundation
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+from .xoskafkaproducer import XOSKafkaProducer
diff --git a/lib/xos-kafka/xoskafka/xoskafkaproducer.py b/lib/xos-kafka/xoskafka/xoskafkaproducer.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6781311
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/xos-kafka/xoskafka/xoskafkaproducer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+# Copyright 2018-present Open Networking Foundation
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+""" XOSKafkaProducer """
+
+import confluent_kafka
+
+from xosconfig import Config
+from multistructlog import create_logger
+log = create_logger(Config().get('logging'))
+
+kafka_producer = None
+
+
+class XOSKafkaProducer:
+    """ XOSKafkaProducer
+        Wrapper to share Kafka Producer connection
+    """
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def init():
+
+        global kafka_producer
+
+        if kafka_producer:
+            raise Exception('XOSKafkaProducer already initialized')
+
+        else:
+            log.info('Connecting to Kafka with bootstrap servers: %s' %
+                     Config.get('kafka_bootstrap_servers'))
+
+            try:
+                producer_config = {
+                    'bootstrap.servers':
+                        ','.join(Config.get('kafka_bootstrap_servers')),
+                }
+
+                kafka_producer = confluent_kafka.Producer(**producer_config)
+
+                log.info('Connected to Kafka: %s' % kafka_producer)
+
+            except confluent_kafka.KafkaError, e:
+                log.exception("Kafka Error: %s" % e)
+
+    @classmethod
+    def produce(cls, topic, key, value):
+
+        try:
+            kafka_producer.produce(
+                topic,
+                value,
+                key,
+                callback=cls._kafka_delivery_callback
+                )
+
+        except confluent_kafka.KafkaError, err:
+            log.exception("Kafka Error", err)
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _kafka_delivery_callback(err, msg):
+        if err:
+            log.error('Message failed delivery: %s' % err)
+        else:
+            log.trace('Message delivered', message=msg)