This month in big data, we're doing something a little different. In the past, we've looked at a variety of topics in these posts — like in August, when we talked about analytics, design, and Donald Trump. But for September, we're going to wrap the month up with a deep dive into the wonderful world of Kafka.

Top 5 Kafka Articles on DZone

Check out the top five Kafka-related articles on DZone that have been around since we were a wee little baby called Java Lobby. These articles are best read in order, so follow along and enhance your Kafka knowledge!

1. What Is Kafka? by Jean-Paul Azar. First things first: you need to learn what Kafka is in the first place if you don't know already. Come glean some insight on why one-third of all Fortune 500 companies use Kafka and check out a few specific Kafka use cases.

2. Spark Streaming vs. Kafka Streaming by Mahesh Chand Kandpal. Now that you know about Kafka, you may be comparing it to Spark. Which should you choose? Depending on your specific needs, one or the other will be right for you.

3. Big Data Ingestion: Flume, Kafka, and NiFi by Tony Siciliani. Teamwork makes the dream work, right? So there's no reason for Kafka to be used alone. Learn how these Apache ingesting tools fare in dealing with the high volume, variety, and velocity of data showing up at the gates of what would typically be a Hadoop ecosystem.

4. Evaluating Message Brokers: Kafka vs. Kinesis vs. SQS by Swaroop Ramachandra. Now that we've brought them together, let's pit them against each other! Kafka, Kinesis, and SQS are some of the best message brokers for big data applications. But who should reign on top?

5. Kafka Avro Scala Example by Sushil Kumar Singh. Lastly, let's look at a specific example of using Kafka. In this code-heavy tutorial, see how you can use Kafka and Avro to create a messaging system with complex data.

PS: Are you interested in contributing to DZone? Check out our brand new Bounty Board, where you can apply for specific writing prompts and win prizes! 

Kafka Abroad

Let's journey outside of DZone and check out some recent news, conferences, and more that should be of interest to Kafka newbies and experts alike.

• The Kafka Summit took place last month in San Francisco, CA and will be happening April 23-24, 2018 in London, England! This summit is the world's largest Apache Kafka event. Companies large and small, from Netflix to Uber to Yelp, come to share the experiences they've had on their transformational Kafka journeys. Weren't lucky enough to make it to 2017's Summit? No worries! Check out the presentations here.

• LinkedIn announces open-source tool to keep Kafka clusters running. One major announcement at August's Kafka Summit was that LinkedIn now has a load balancing tool that recognizes when clusters are about to break. The tool, called Cruise Control, is open-source and helps keep Kafka clusters up and running.

• 2017 Apache Kafka Report. In this free download, you'll learn about the latest breakthroughs in Kafka technology, how Kafka is helping to fill the gap in the data infrastructure of growing companies, and the impact that Apache Kafka and streaming data have on business.

Dive Deeper Into Kafka

DZone has Guides and Refcardz on pretty much every tech-related topic, but if you're specifically interested in Kafka, these will appeal the most to you. 

1. The DZone Guide to Big Data: Data Science and Advanced Analytics. Explore the critical capabilities in next-generation self-service data preparation tools and dive deep into applications and languages affiliated with big data.

2. Data Warehousing: Best Practices for Collecting, Storing, and Delivering Decision-Support Data. In this DZone Refcard, gain a complete understanding of data modeling, infrastructure, relationships, attributes, and speedy history downloading and recording with atomic data.

Jobs for the Kafka Expert

Below are a few jobs that may pique your interest if you're a Kafka aficionado. Check them out and apply today!

Network Data Scientist
Thousand Eyes
Location: Anywhere!
Experience: Ph.D. or MS in Computer Science; experience with analyzing BGP routing streams, traffic analysis, tcpdump and libpcap, and distributed real-time systems.

Python Developer
Citrus Bits
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Experience: In-depth knowledge of Python; either mobile experience, AWS experience, or video domain experience; will be optimizing a mobile app that streams real-time video and audio running on a Python backend and AWS.

That's all for September's This Month in Big Data post! What would you like to learn about next time? Let us know in the comments!