Introduction
Apache Kafka is an open-source, distributed event streaming platform designed for high performance data pipelines, streaming analytics and data integration. Think of it as a high speed message hub for your data. It lets applications publish, store and subscribe to streams of records in real-time.
Key concepts in Kafka
1. Producer
An application that sends messages to Kafka topics.
2. Consumer
An application that reads messages from Kafka topics.
3. Topic
A category or feed name to which records are sent. Think of this as a channel.
4. Broker
A Kafka server. Multiple brokers form a Kafka cluster.
5. Kafka Cluster
A group of Kafka brokers working together.
Kafka Use case
Imagine an e-commerce platform:
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Producers – Checkout service, inventory services, payment gateway.
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Kafka – Handles all events.
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Consumers – Analytics dashboards, fraud detection systems and email notifications.
Conclusion
Apache Kafka is a backbone for real-time data streaming.
