Member-only story
Apache Kafka’s 3 Main Functions
Apache Kafka’s 3 main functions
- Publish and subscribe to streams of records
- Effectively store streams of records in the order in which records were generated
- Process streams of records in real time
Apache Kafka is a distributed data store optimized for ingesting and processing streaming data in real-time.
Streaming data is data that is continuously generated by thousands of data sources, which typically send the data records in simultaneously. A streaming platform needs to handle this constant influx of data, and process the data sequentially and incrementally.
Kafka is primarily used to build real-time streaming data pipelines and applications that adapt to the data streams. It combines messaging, storage, and stream processing to allow storage and analysis of both historical and real-time data.
Summary
Kafka is designed to handle data streams from multiple sources and deliver them to multiple consumers. In short, it moves massive amounts of data — not just from point A to B, but from points A to Z and anywhere else you need, all at the same time.
References
https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/integration/what-is-apache-kafka
