Message queue (MQ) software, or message broker provides services that allow applications to communicate with each other by sending and receiving messages. A message can be sent from one application to another, or from one process within an application to another process within the same application. Messages are routed through a message broker, which is a system that stores messages in a queue and forwards them to the intended recipient. The main benefit of using message queues is that they decouple applications, which makes them more scalable and resilient. For example, if one application is sending messages faster than another application can process them, the message queue will buffer the messages and deliver them at a rate that the second application can handle. This enables each application to run independently without affecting the performance of the other. In addition, if one application crashes, the message queue will store any messages that were in transit and deliver them when the application is restarted. This ensures that no messages are lost and that applications can continue to communicate even if one of them is unavailable for a short period of time. Message queues are often used in distributed systems where it is important to decouple applications for scalability and reliability reasons.
Popular Message Broker Platforms
Following are some of the best message broker platforms available
RabbitMQ
RabbitMQ is a message broker that allows for easy and efficient communication between various applications and systems. It is useful for a wide variety of reasons, chief among them being its ability to decouple processes, its scalability, and its reliability. Perhaps the most important reason for RabbitMQ’s widespread use is its ability to decouple processes. By decoupling sender and receiver, it allows for greater flexibility and easier development. Secondly, RabbitMQ is highly scalable. It can handle large numbers of messages and connections with ease, making it ideal for use in high-traffic systems. Finally, RabbitMQ is extremely reliable. It has built-in redundancy mechanisms that ensure that messages are delivered even in the event of failures. Consequently, RabbitMQ is an extremely popular message broker that is used in a wide variety of applications.
IBM MQ
IBM MQ is a message-oriented middleware platform that allows applications to communicate with each other across multiple systems. It is widely used in businesses where there is a need for fast, reliable and secure communication between different applications. IBM MQ can be used to connect applications within a single company or across different companies. It provides a guaranteed delivery of messages and ensures that messages are delivered in the order they were sent. IBM MQ is highly scalable and can be easily customized to meet the specific needs of an organization. It supports a wide range of programming languages and platforms, making it an ideal choice for businesses that use a variety of technology platforms.
Apache Kafka
Apache Kafka is a popular message broker software that is widely used for processing data streams. It is a fast, scalable, and reliable system that can handle high volumes of data with ease. Apache Kafka is often used in conjunction with Apache Hadoop for big data applications. One of the main reasons for its popularity is its ability to handle real-time streaming data with ease. It can also be used for fraud detection, monitoring, and other applications that require real-time data processing. Another reason why Apache Kafka is so popular is its high availability and durability. Kafka is designed to be highly available and can tolerate failures without losing any data. This makes it an ideal platform for mission-critical applications. Apache Kafka also has excellent documentation and a large community of users who are always willing to help.
Amazon SQS
Amazon SQS message broker is a widely used message-oriented middleware that helps in decoupling applications or integrating applications. It uses a pull model where receivers (called workers) polling or pulling messages from a queue. The main advantage of using SQS is that it abstracts away the underlying message queuing implementation details such as whether to use FIFO queues or Standard queues. This allows developers to create distributed applications without worrying about the complexities of managing message queues. Furthermore, SQS provides reliability and fault tolerance by automatically replicating messages across multiple availability zones. In addition, SQS guarantees delivery of messages at least once and supports both first-in-first-out (FIFO) and exact-once semantics. Lastly, SQS is highly scalable and can process billions of messages per day
Some benefits of using Amazon SQS include:
-It is easy to use and manage
-It is highly scalable
-It offers high availability and durability
-It is reliable and fault tolerant
-It supports both FIFO and exact-once semantics
Memphis{Dev}
The Memphis{dev} message broker is an open source project that provides a message-oriented middleware platform for applications. It is useful for connecting apps and services that use different protocols, and it is widely used because it supports a wide range of protocols and languages. Memphis{dev} is written in golang and forked from NATS.IO. It is available under the GPL3.0. Memphis{dev} has a pluggable architecture that allows developers to extend its functionality by creating plugins. The message broker supports a number of transport protocols, including TCP, UDP, SCTP, and WebSockets. It also supports several message formats, including JSON, XML, and Protobuf. In addition, Memphis{dev} offers a number of features that make it an attractive choice for developers, such as support for clustering and high availability, error handling, and monitoring.
The main features of Memphis{dev} are
3-minute installation over any Docker or Kubernetes
Easy-to-use UI, CLI, and SDKs (Constantly evolving)
Real-time tracing of messages and their journey
Inline processing
Schema management