A system in which two or more applications send digital records (messages) to one another using standard formats. Also referred to as message-oriented middleware, messaging software was the precursor to modern streaming platforms such as Apache Kafka.
Added Perspectives
Messaging is the most common way of transporting streaming data. The idea is simple: One system (sender) sends a data record to another system (receiver). The real-world implementations, however, can vary in many ways, e.g., confirmation of receipt or ensuring only-once delivery. As soon as more than two systems are involved, using a message broker or event log as an intermediary to distribute messages to multiple systems becomes handy.
