Apache Kafka in 2025: Why Netflix and Uber Rely on It

Why is Apache Kafka so important, and why is everyone talking about it? Imagine you have an online store. Customers are ordering, paying, receiving text messages, and even tracking the status of their orders at any given moment. If all this information was fed directly into a database, your system would probably not last more than a few days! That’s where Apache Kafka comes in: an open-source platform that manages data as a “continuous stream.” Kafka is like a “multi lane highway” for information. Instead of getting lost or overloading the system, data travels on this highway, stopping at various stations (consumers) and then moving on to its destination.

Why do big companies like Netflix and Uber love Kafka?

1- Netflix: It receives billions of requests from users every day. From movie recommendations to seamless streaming. Netflix has managed to manage the flow of data in a way that never breaks the user experience. 2- Uber: Imagine that every Uber trip generates thousands of data points (driver location, trip status, payment, etc.). With Kafka, Uber makes sure that all this information is processed in real time and that the driver and passenger are constantly updated.

How Kafka compares to similar tools

Many people ask, “Why RabbitMQ or not ActiveMQ?” The answer is simple! Kafka is built for massive amounts of real time data. RabbitMQ is great for regular messaging, but it falls short when it comes to billions of events per second. Instead of a traditional queue, Kafka stores data on disk and can keep it for years. This means it’s both fast and durable.

Kafka Architecture: very simple!

1- Producer: produces data (e.g., a user placing an order). 2- Broker: is like a central server that holds the data. 3- Consumer: is the application or service that reads the data (e.g., a warehouse system to update inventory). 4- Topic: is a channel or category of data, e.g., “payments” or “orders.”

Where is Kafka a great choice, and where is it not?

Great for: 1- E commerce with heavy transactions 2- Video or music streaming platforms 3- Banking and fintech systems with sensitive data 4- IoT and sensor data processing But if your project is small and doesn’t exceed a few hundred messages per second, Kafka is more than you need and its maintenance costs are high.

The Future of Apache Kafka in 2025

With the growth of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT), the demand for real-time data processing has multiplied. For example, imagine a smart city where all traffic lights and traffic sensors are connected to Kafka; data is analyzed in real time and routes are optimized.

Conclusion

Apache Kafka is not just a data transfer tool; it is a mainstay for any system that deals with real-time data. If your business is going to grow and you don’t want to miss a single moment of the data flow, Kafka acts as the “beating heart” of your system.