Apache Kafka
A distributed event streaming platform for high-throughput, fault-tolerant data pipelines.
Also: Apache Kafka
Definition
Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform designed for high-throughput, low-latency, fault-tolerant data pipelines and real-time stream processing. Kafka stores event streams in partitioned, replicated topics and allows producers to publish and consumers to subscribe at their own pace. Its durability (disk persistence), horizontal scalability, and exactly-once delivery semantics make it foundational for event-driven architectures, log aggregation, and data integration in large organizations.
Example
“Twitter uses Kafka to process hundreds of billions of events per day, routing tweet engagements, ad impressions, and user activities to analytics systems, ML pipelines, and notification services in real time.”
Synonyms
- event streaming platform
- distributed message broker
- event bus
Antonyms / Opposites
- synchronous API call
- point-to-point queue
Images
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Related Terms
- pub-sub
- event-driven
- event-sourcing
- message-queue