# Kafka Concepts

Generated on 24 Mar 2026

Kafka is an open-source distributed event and stream-processing platform built to process demanding real-time data feeds. It is inherently scalable, with high throughput and availability.

[Best Practices](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/kafka/concepts/best-practices/index.html.md): Recommended practices to implement when setting up and running your Kafka clusters.

[Shared Responsibility Model](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/kafka/concepts/responsibility-model/index.html.md): Description of DigitalOcean’s responsibilities as a managed database provider.