Understanding AWS SQS and How It Differs from Kafka

In today’s world of distributed systems, reliable messaging and data streaming are critical components for enabling seamless communication between services. Two popular tools for this purpose are AWS SQS (Simple Queue Service) and Apache Kafka. This blog explores the fundamentals of AWS SQS, compares it to Kafka, and demonstrates a sample implementation of AWS SQS in Python.

What is AWS SQS?

AWS SQS (Simple Queue Service) is a fully managed message queuing service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It allows you to decouple and scale microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications. Messages are stored in a queue until they are processed and deleted.

Key Features of AWS SQS:

1. Fully Managed: No need to manage infrastructure.
2. Two Queue Types:

• Standard Queue: Provides high throughput, best-effort ordering, and at-least-once delivery.
• FIFO Queue: Guarantees exact-once delivery and preserves the order of messages.

3. Scalability: Handles a virtually unlimited number of messages.

4. Security: Integrates with AWS IAM for fine-grained access control.