Tibco to integrate Apache Kafka and MQTT into its messaging software

Enterprise middleware company keen to keep IoT developers on board

Tibco, the venerable data integration and analytics company, has announced its support for Apache Kafka as part of its Tibco Messaging service.

Tibco Messaging is middleware that allows applications to communicate with each other. Kafka is an open-source platform used for building real-time data pipelines and streaming apps.

Until now a developer using Tibco Messaging wanted to make data published to Kafka available directly to applications not based on Kafka, they would build a custom bridge and publish via another messaging service, whereas from May, when the new integration will be rolled out, now they will be able to publish direct to the Tibco FTL enterprise messaging middleware.

Tibco also announced the availability of MQTT broker capabilities within Tibco Messaging, via the open-source Eclipse Mosquitto project. MQTT is a protocol widely used in IoT-type applications.

The company's journey to the adoption of open source could be best charaterised as ‘reluctant'. After all the company has made a very good living over the years through its proprietary enterprise bus software, which was originally taken up by financial traders. Interviewed by Computing just a couple of years ago, a Tibco spokesperson inferred that open source software was amateurish and untrustworthy and unsuitable for enterprise. However, open source has gradually worked its way into Tibco's offerings, starting with the acquisition of the Jaspersoft BI suite in 2015 and then 2016's introduction of the IoT integration framework Project Flogo.

"Tibco recognises the need to not only develop new and innovative messaging solutions, but also to enable anytime, anywhere messaging. With the addition of open source software (OSS) support for Apache Kafka, and for MQTT via the Eclipse Mosquitto project, Tibco Messaging is advancing the idea that different types of messaging, no matter the flavor, must be done efficiently, quickly, and reliably," the company says in a blog post.

Tibco's aim is to maintain its relevance by allowing integration of popular open source development tools with its core enterprise data management products.

"With the addition of Apache Kafka and an MQTT broker to the Tibco Messaging platform, architects and developers can now select a single offering that provides the broadest spectrum of capabilities, ranging from high-volume batch processing, to ultra-low-latency distribution, to streaming and IoT messaging," said Denny Page, chief engineer and senior vice president, in a statement.

Page continued: "Furthermore, this offering now includes enterprise-class support for mission-critical applications, enabling customers to reliably leverage Apache Kafka, Eclipse Mosquitto, and other TIBCO Messaging components with the assurance of worldwide, 24x7 support."

Tibco Messaging is available for free as a community edition for up to 100 instances, while a commercial subscription starts at $750 per instance per year, which includes enterprise support and use of all Tibco Messaging technologies. Support for Kafka and MQTT will begin in May.