Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform designed for high-throughput, fault-tolerant data processing. It allows users to publish and subscribe to streams of records in real-time, making it ideal for building data pipelines and streaming applications. Developed by the Apache Software Foundation, Kafka is widely used for managing large volumes of data across various systems. It supports multiple programming languages and integrates seamlessly with other big data tools, enabling organizations to process and analyze data efficiently.