# Amazon MQ

> ActiveMQ or RabbitMQ message brokers, run for you by AWS.

- Level: Intermediate
- Topics: AWS, Software
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-mq/
- In Spanish: [Amazon MQ](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/amazon-mq/)

A **message broker** is a piece of software that sits between applications and passes messages from one to another. The order system drops a message saying "new order 512"; the billing and shipping systems pick it up when they are ready. If one of them is down for a minute, the message waits instead of getting lost. Apache ActiveMQ and RabbitMQ are two popular open source brokers, used in many companies for years.

**Amazon MQ** runs those same brokers for you. You choose ActiveMQ Classic or RabbitMQ, pick a size, and AWS handles the servers, patches, version upgrades, encryption and monitoring through CloudWatch. You can run a setup spread across availability zones, so a broker keeps working if one data center fails.

Its main use is moving existing applications to AWS without rewriting their messaging code, because Amazon MQ supports the standard APIs and protocols those apps already use, such as JMS, AMQP, MQTT or STOMP. For a new application built only for AWS, Amazon SQS and Amazon SNS are usually simpler and scale with less tuning.

## An analogy

A building's mailroom, staffed and maintained by someone else: you keep using the same mailboxes and forms you always used, but you no longer hire the clerks or fix the sorting machine.

## Keep in mind

- Managed service for Apache ActiveMQ Classic and RabbitMQ brokers.
- Speaks standard protocols, so existing apps can move without code changes.
- AWS handles patching, upgrades, encryption and monitoring.
- For brand new cloud apps, SQS and SNS are often the simpler choice.

## Go deeper

- [What is Amazon MQ? (official docs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazon-mq/latest/developer-guide/welcome.html)
- [Amazon MQ product page](https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-mq/)

## Related terms

- [Open source](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/open-source/): Software whose code anyone can read, use, change and share.
- [Server](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/server/): A computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, all day, every day.
- [Encryption](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/encryption/): Scrambling data so that only someone with the key can read it.
- [Amazon CloudWatch](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-cloudwatch/): The dashboard and alarm system that watches everything running in your AWS account.
- [Regions and Availability Zones](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/regions-and-availability-zones/): Where AWS physically lives: cities worldwide, each split into separate data centers.
- [Data center](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/data-center/): A building full of servers where the internet, the cloud and AI actually run.
- [API](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/api/): The menu of things one program lets another program ask for.
- [Amazon SQS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-sqs/): A waiting line for messages between programs, so none of them gets lost.