What is Apache Kafka? Why should we use Kafka?

What is Apache Kafka?

Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed streaming platform used by thousands of companies for high-performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications.

It is designed to handle real-time data feeds with high throughput and low latency.

Why should we use Apache Kafka?

• Real-time data processing: Kafka can process data in real time, which allows you to make decisions and take actions based on the latest data.
• Decoupling of applications: Kafka can decouple applications by allowing them to communicate with each other through topics. This can make applications more scalable and resilient to failures.
• Scalability: Kafka can be easily scaled to handle large amounts of data and traffic.
• Reliability: Kafka is a highly reliable platform that can tolerate failures.
• Durability: Kafka can store messages durably to ensure that they are not lost in the event of a failure.

Core components of Kafka:

• Brokers: Brokers are the servers that store and manage Kafka data. They are responsible for receiving messages from producers, storing them in partitions, and replicating them to other brokers.
• Producers: Producers are applications that send messages to Kafka topics.
• Consumers: Consumers are applications that read messages from Kafka topics.
• Topics: Topics are categories to which messages are published. Consumers subscribe to topics to receive messages.
• Partitions: Partitions are segments of a topic that are stored on a single broker. This allows Kafka to distribute messages across multiple brokers for scalability.

Companies using Kafka:

• Netflix: Netflix uses Kafka to process real-time data about customer behavior.
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn uses Kafka to connect with its members and provide them with real-time updates.
• Uber: Uber uses Kafka to track the location of its drivers and riders.
• PayPal: PayPal uses Kafka to process real-time payments.
• Twitter: Twitter uses Kafka to collect and process tweets in real time.