Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform used for building real-time data pipelines and streaming applications.
3. What are the use cases of Apache Kafka?
Apache Kafka is a distributed streaming platform that is used to handle real-time data feeds. Some of the use cases of Apache Kafka are:
- Messaging: Apache Kafka can be used as a messaging system to handle real-time data feeds between different systems. It can be used to send messages between different applications, services, and devices.
- Log Aggregation: Apache Kafka can be used to aggregate logs from different systems in real-time. This can help in analyzing logs and identifying issues in the system.
- Stream Processing: Apache Kafka can be used to process real-time data streams. It can be used to perform real-time analytics on data streams and trigger actions based on the results.
- Event Sourcing: Apache Kafka can be used as an event sourcing platform. It can be used to store events in a reliable and scalable way, and replay them when needed.
- Microservices: Apache Kafka can be used as a communication channel between microservices. It can be used to send messages between different microservices and to handle events in a distributed system.
Overall, Apache Kafka is a versatile platform that can be used in a variety of use cases where real-time data processing and messaging are required.
One of the main differences between Kafka and traditional messaging systems is that Kafka is designed to handle high volume, high velocity data streams in real-time, while traditional messaging systems are typically designed for point-to-point communication between applications.
Kafka is also designed to be highly scalable and fault-tolerant, with the ability to handle millions of messages per second, while traditional messaging systems may struggle to handle such high volumes of data.
In addition, Kafka uses a publish-subscribe model, where messages are published to a topic and then consumed by one or more subscribers, while traditional messaging systems often use a point-to-point model where messages are sent directly from one application to another.
Overall, Kafka’s design makes it well-suited for use cases such as real-time data processing, streaming analytics, and event-driven architectures.