TIL – Message Queue

Key points:

• A message queue is a form of asynchronous service-to-service communication used in serverless and microservices architectures. 
• Calling it “queue” because of that messages are pulled in the mechanism of FIFO (First in First Out).
• Different styles of message queuing: point-to-point (one message is received by one consumer), and Publish/Subscribe (one message is received by multiple consumers).

References:

• https://aws.amazon.com/message-queue/
• https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ibm-mq/9.1?topic=overview-introduction-message-queuing

Overall, using message queues in software engineering helps to achieve a more scalable, resilient, and efficient system architecture, enabling better performance and fault tolerance:

1. Asynchronous Communication: Message queues enable asynchronous communication between different services or components of a system. This means that the sender and receiver do not need to interact directly, improving the overall efficiency and performance of the system.
2. Improved Scalability: Message queues allow for better scalability by decoupling the components of a system. Applications can process messages independently and at their own pace, ensuring that the system can handle increased load without affecting its overall performance.
3. Fault Tolerance and Resilience: In the event of failures or downtime of a particular service, message queues provide a layer of fault tolerance. Messages are safely stored in the queue until the failed component becomes available again. This ensures that no data is lost and the system can recover gracefully without impacting the overall functionality.
4. Load Balancing: By distributing the workload across multiple instances or services, message queues allow for efficient load balancing. Each instance can process messages independently, ensuring that the overall system maintains stability, even during peak times or heavy traffic.
5. Service Integration: Message queues provide an effective way to integrate different services or components within a distributed system. They provide a simple interface for communication and can be used to synchronize activities between various parts of the system.
6. Order Preservation: In many cases, maintaining the order of operations or requests is essential. Message queues help ensure that messages are processed in the order they are received, following the First In, First Out (FIFO) principle.

From ChatGPT