Shipping Data in Real Time Debezium : Part 1
Tags: dataengineering, cdc, debezium, realtimeanalytics
Published: 2024-03-17 20:26:35

*"In the digital age, businesses are on a constant quest to delve deeper into their data, aiming to glean insights that can propel their products and services to new heights. This journey, however, encounters a significant hurdle when dealing with distributed systems, where managing data isn't just about accessing it—it's about keeping up with it in real time. That's where Change Data Capture (CDC) and a open-source tool named Debezium come into play.*

Debezium is designed to address these challenges head-on, offering businesses a way to:

1. **Do More with Your Data**
2. **Simplify Your Applications** 
3. **React Quickly to Change** 

> `Data transformation begins with acknowledging the significance of every individual change.` 

*I think it fits well for Debezium and You will also agree soon*


*Our blog series on Debezium will be split into two parts. The first part will cover the basics—introducing you to Debezium, its importance, and how it revolutionizes data management in distributed systems. 
The second part will be a practical guide, walking you through how to set up and use Debezium, empowering you to implement real-time data synchronization and analysis.*

###### Why a fancy name Debezium :D ######
> The name is a combination of "DBs", as in the abbreviation for multiple databases, and the "-ium" suffix used in the names of many elements of the periodic table. Say it fast: "DBs-ium". If it helps, we say it like "dee-BEE-zee-uhm". [Source](https://debezium.io/documentation/faq/#where_did_the_name_debezium_come_from)`


![CDC Architecture](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lshacibgtw29xo35kj1n.gif)

**Active Database Operations:** It all begins with your operational database, continuously processing create, update, and delete operations as part of its day-to-day functions.

**Deploying the Debezium Engine:** Integrate Debezium with your database by setting up the Debezium engine. This engine connects to your database, subscribing to change data capture (CDC) events. It acts as a dedicated listener for all database changes.

**Data Transformation:** Debezium utilizes database-specific connectors that tap into the transaction logs. These logs are then translated by Debezium into a standardized, easily consumable format. This crucial step ensures that the change data is not only captured but also made ready for downstream processing without requiring direct queries against the database, thereby reducing overhead.

**Streaming to Kafka:** The processed data is then streamed to Apache Kafka topics. This step effectively decouples data producers (your databases) from data consumers, ensuring that the data is reliably available for real-time consumption and further processing.

**Data Consumption:** Finally, consumers (which can be any downstream applications, services, or data pipelines) subscribe to the relevant Kafka topics. They can now access and utilize the real-time data feed for analytics, replication, or any other use case that benefits from having immediate access to change events.


This article explores how Debezium can effectively tackle business challenges. Ready to roll up our sleeves? Let's delve into [Part 2](https://dev.to/gouthamsayee/debezium-implementation-in-postgres-2fjd), where we'll walk through implementing it in just a few simple steps. Stay tuned!