Comment by capableweb
5 years ago
> My answer to anyone who asks for kafka: Show me that you can't do what you need with a beefy Postgres.
...
You could probably hack any database to perform any task, but why would you? Use the right tool for the right task, not one tool for all tasks.
If the right tool is a relational database, then use Postgres/$OTHER-DATABASE
If the right tool is distributed, partitioned and replicated commit log service, then use Kafka/$OTHER-COMMIT-LOG
Not sure why people get so emotional about the technologies the know the best. Sure you could hack Postgres to be a replicated commit log, but I'm sure it'll be easier to just throw in Kafka instead.
Something I find peculiar about this truth is that Postgres itself is based on the write ahead log structure for sequencing statements, replication, audit logging.
It feels like two different lenses onto the same reality.