Middleware plays a crucial role in modern IT infrastructure by enabling seamless communication between applications, systems, and services. It facilitates data exchange, enhances interoperability, and supports various business functions by providing capabilities like messaging, transaction management, and integration services. Over time, middleware has evolved from simple message brokers to sophisticated platforms supporting APIs, cloud computing, microservices, and event-driven architectures.

Kafka is powerful. No doubt about it. But it’s also a beast when it comes to operational complexity and cost. What starts as a simple deployment quickly turns into a resource-hungry system that eats up engineering hours, compute power, and budget. Let’s consider a company that eagerly rolls out Kafka to streamline event streaming. Year one? Smooth sailing. Everything runs fine, and the team feels great. Year two? The cracks start to show.