Why Rust Is Emerging in Safety-Critical Systems — And Why It Matters Now

Cybersecurity is no longer a feature that can be layered onto a system later. In safety-critical industries like automotive, defense, robotics, and industrial automation, security is now foundational to functional safety.

That reality is driving a major shift in how modern systems are built – and increasingly, organizations are turning to the Rust programming language.

Rust’s memory-safe architecture helps eliminate entire classes of vulnerabilities before code even runs. In fact, memory-related issues are estimated to account for roughly 70% of critical security flaws in systems software. For teams building distributed, real-time systems, that statistic is difficult to ignore.

When your architecture already depends on proven, production-grade communication infrastructure, you want every element of that system to support development velocity.

But real-world adoption is rarely a flip of a switch. Teams face challenges when they try to move to Rust inside existing, often large systems based on the Data Distribution Service (DDS^®) standard. These challenges include:

• Training and ramp-up time,
• Integration friction with existing C/C++ stacks,
• Differences in serialization and code-generation tooling, and
• The organizational risk of rewriting production components all at once.

In short – teams want the safety benefits of Rust, but they also need a safe, low-risk path to get there.

That’s why we built the RTI Connector for Rust.

A Practical Bridge Between Rust and DDS

To help developers begin the journey, RTI is introducing Connector for Rust – an early-access entry point that allows teams to experiment with Rust and DDS-based messaging, together, through RTI Connext.

RTI is taking a pragmatic approach: providing a lightweight, configuration-driven Connector that enables developers to publish and subscribe using familiar DDS semantics while minimizing integration complexity.

The goal is simple:

Make it easy to learn, evaluate, and experiment – without forcing production commitments.

By exposing the Connector source code, developers gain transparency into how the integration works and the flexibility to extend it for their own environments.

Why This Matters for System Architects

For architects designing next-generation platforms, the challenge isn’t just choosing the right technologies – it’s managing risk while preparing for the future. In other words — teams can explore what’s next without destabilizing what already works.

Connector for Rust offers a practical on-ramp by enabling:

• Safe experimentation with DDS in Rust
  
• Rapid prototyping and simulation
  
• Integration within mixed-language environments
  
• Exploration of memory-safe system foundations
  
• Low-latency communication with minimal infrastructure overhead
  

This release is intentionally designed for experimentation. Early adopters will help shape RTI’s long-term strategy for native Rust support through real-world feedback and deployment insights. It also reflects a broader belief:

The future of distributed systems will increasingly demand both performance and provable safety.

Rust is rapidly becoming part of that conversation – and RTI is committed to supporting developers as the ecosystem evolves.

How It Works

The Connector wraps Connext Professional’s XML Application Creation capability, where DDS entities – participants, topics, readers, writers, and types – are defined in an external XML configuration file.

Using this model, developers can send and receive data through high-level Rust abstractions built on DDS Dynamic Data, eliminating the need for traditional IDL-based code generation.

Additional capabilities include:

• Iterator-based data access
  
• Serde-powered serialization and deserialization
  
• Compatibility with existing Rust domain models
  
• Reduced runtime errors with stronger compile-time confidence
  

The result is faster onboarding and a significantly lower barrier for teams new to DDS.

A Small Step Toward Fully Native Rust Systems

Over time, native Rust APIs will enable developers to build high-performance distributed systems entirely within the Rust ecosystem – without language switching or architectural compromises.

Connector for Rust is an important early step in that direction.

It gives teams immediate access to production-proven DDS technology, while helping RTI understand how developers want to build the next generation of intelligent, connected systems.

Start Experimenting

Connector for Rust is available now through RTI Labs for developers interested in exploring DDS within Rust environments.

If you’re building secure, distributed applications – or preparing your architecture for a memory-safe future – this is your opportunity to start learning, testing, and experimenting.

👉 Explore Connector for Rust in RTI Labs.

About the author: 

Aditi Vira is a Senior Product Manager at RTI, where she leads product strategy and execution for Connext Professional, RTI’s flagship connectivity platform for real-time distributed systems. 

She is responsible for driving the product vision from conception through launch, working closely with GTM, engineering, customers, and strategic partners to deliver scalable, high-performance solutions for mission-critical systems. Aditi has 15 years of experience building products from the ground up using next-generation technologies – spanning embedded real-time systems, edge connectivity, and cloud-native platforms.