For businesses to thrive, they need the best communication tools around. They require connections that will allow for unhampered message delivery. This is where message brokering comes in. A message broker helps to communicate ideas quickly and efficiently between two sources. We’ll break down what exactly a message broker is.
Definition
A message broker is a communication method that is used by messaging middleware through a server-based model. When a message broker is being used the source application (producer) sends a message to a server process. After this, they are provided with data marshaling, message translation, routing, delivery, and persistence to all the applicable destinations (consumers). At its base level, a message broker acts as an intermediary computer program module that helps to translate the formal messaging protocol of the sender to the formal messaging protocol of the receiver.
Many companies such as Data Science software industry leader TIBCO utilize such technology in keeping consumers abreast of the various activities of their company. After answering the question of “What is a message broker?” you’ll find that there’s much more involved when attempting to define what this form of communication is.
One of the main defining characteristics of a message broker is that the broker is a discrete service through that producers and consumers communicate with a broker. They utilize standard and/ or proprietary protocols through this form of communication. Through this method of interaction on different platforms, the message broker provides state management and tracking of clients. This allows for individual applications to not have the need to handle the responsibility and complexity of such delivery of messages. The most common types of message brokers include RabbitMQ, Apache Kafka, Amazon SQS, Redis, and Amazon SNS. Breaking down the definition of what a message broker does helps to define what a message broker is.
Message Broker Types
The types of message brokers include publish and subscribe (topics), and point-to-point (queues). With publish and subscribe producers practice the delivery of messages by sending a message on a topic. The producer is known as the publisher while the consumer is known as the subscriber. This type of message brokering allows for many publishes to publish on the same topic. The delivery of messages by a multitude of publishers can be received by many subscribers. As subscribers align themselves to topics, all other messages are published to the topic, that was received by all subscribes on the topic at hand.
Another type of message broker that you can utilize includes point-to-point (queues). Many people consider this to be the simplest form of message delivery. The route for messaging with such message delivery takes place between two sources: one producer and one consumer. This message system uses a queue to store messages that are sent by the producer. The message delivery system then sends it to the consumer.
Messages are sent to the message queue by the producer. A consumer then takes the message sent by the sender and relays an acknowledgment that the message was received. The great thing about this message delivery system is that one producer can send a multitude of messages to the same message queue. More than one user can then pull the messages from that message queue. Publish and subscribe and point-to-point message broker types help to provide a better idea of what message brokering truly is.
Message Broker Use
Message brokers can be used on a variety of fronts. The can first be used to manage communications between on-premises and cloud components in hybrid cloud environments. Message brokering can be utilized in healthcare, private industry, government occupations, and in a host of other fields. Whatever field this technology is used in it helps to give increased control over interservice communications, while also making sure that such message delivery is reliable and secure.
