We used a database as a message queue. Now we use Kafka

Description and use

The team replaced a database‑based message queue with Apache Kafka, improving performance and scalability.

Problem

The team relied on a relational database to queue messages, which caused performance bottlenecks and limited scalability.

Outcome

Kafka reduced message latency by 70%, increased throughput to 10k events/s, and simplified scaling.

Workflow

• 1. Identify bottlenecks in database‑based queue
• 2. Design Kafka topic schema
• 3. Set up Kafka cluster (single broker for dev, multi‑broker for prod)
• 4. Implement producer to publish events to Kafka
• 5. Update consumers to read from Kafka
• 6. Decommission database queue and archive data

Evidence

We used a database as a message queue

Source

Now we use Kafka

Source