When running a business that relies on large amounts of data, the ways in which that data is stored, processed, and shared are critical to your business’s success. While you may rely on more tech-savvy people than you to handle your event streaming, it is essential to understand what event streaming is, how it relates to your business, and what problems and solutions you need to know to keep your business safe and to move forward. Having this basic understanding will ensure you understand the processes that support your business and appreciate your company’s needs as you move forward. Here is an outline of what you need to know about event streaming.
What is event streaming?
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If you are new to this concept, your first question may be, ‘what is event streaming?’ It is okay to admit what you don’t know, because that makes you open to learning. Event streaming is the process of taking action on a series of data points. When you are continuously creating new data, you can’t stream it all at once as one large data load. Rather, you need to take each data point as an event and stream them as a series of events. The “stream” in event streaming is the ongoing delivery of data events.
For example, streaming services provide television shows, movies, and more continuously. Streaming companies can’t just deliver all the shows and information all at once—they need to be continuously processed. If you think about it as a river full of flowing water, the river doesn’t deliver all of the water all at once to the mouth. Rather, there is a constant and steady stream of water traveling from one point to the next. Streaming is an ongoing action rather than one monumental event.
How does event streaming work?
While there is a long, very technical answer to this question, here are the basics. Event stream processing is simply ensuring that the data sets flow continuously from the data’s origin to the destination. This works with two primary technologies—the system that stores the events and the system that takes action. The system used to store the data needs to allow for a high volume of data events and organize and deliver that data to the next system. The system that takes action needs the capacity to process a large number of events consistently and continuously in order to maintain peak efficiency. Additionally, the systems you utilize will need to offer the highest security level to protect both your content creation and your delivery.
What is Apache Kafka?
If you have been researching event streaming, you have likely come across the name Kafka Apache. That is an open-source resource that provides a publish-subscribe messaging platform for real-time streaming data. Data events can be distributed from Apache Kafka, channeled to other sources, or replayed as needed. While there are many advantages to utilizing this system, one of the most significant is the ability of Apache Kafka to maintaining steams of data as records on servers. Data can be stored in clusters or topics across multiple servers, if needed.
How do I know if I need Apache Kafka?
Another great question. One easy answer is to set up a consultation with the company to learn how it can be applied specifically to your business. However, generally speaking, this system is ideal when you need reliable data exchange between two or more components, the ability to separate messaging workloads, real-time streaming, or native support for data replay essentially if you are operating a data-driven business that relies on your ability to maintain consistent and reliable event streaming than you need a system like Apache Kafka.
