What on earth is Apache Kafka useful for?
Apache Kafka is an open-source, distributed streaming platform that provides a unified, high-throughput, low-latency platform for data ingestion and transmission. It has become an indispensable part of modern applications and data infrastructure, with a range of different use-cases.
Apache Kafka is used in many different data streaming scenarios. It has become increasingly popular as a reliable, unified messaging system for providing data ingestion, data governance, real-time data analytics, and stream processing.
One of the most common uses of Apache Kafka is real-time stream processing. This involves consuming data from various sources and applying transformations, aggregations, and analytics in real time. By using the Kafka Streams API, developers can create streaming applications that allow for quickly processing, gathering insights from, and responding to data in near real-time.
Apache Kafka is also often used for data storage and distribution. It can be used for message queuing and event-driven applications. Kafka is also well-suited for implementing a publish-subscribe messaging system as it allows for reliable, asynchronous distribution of messages between publishers and subscribers.
Furthermore, Apache Kafka is also used for data integration. It enables developers to build scalable, distributed systems that process data from multiple sources and locations, including databases, file systems, and other streaming applications.
Finally, Apache Kafka is also often used to build distributed applications, enabling disparate system components to talk to each other over a single, reliable messaging bus. By taking advantage of Kafka’s features, developers can easily build applications that can scale horizontally and handle large volumes of incoming data from different sources.
These are just some of the common use-cases for Apache Kafka. As the technology evolves, more and more use-cases are being discovered. Apache Kafka can be an incredibly powerful technology for modern applications and data infrastructure.
