KCL-based consumer applications

Another recommended approach for processing change events from either a DynamoDB or Kinesis data stream is to utilize the Kinesis Client Library (KCL). It’s worth noting that both DynamoDB Streams and KDS are intentionally designed with similar APIs to simplify the learning curve when dealing with these services separately.

KCL is an open source library that’s provided by AWS and is designed to abstract much of the coordination and orchestration required for reliable stream processing in a distributed environment. When working with DynamoDB Streams, you can employ the KCL-based DynamoDB Streams adapter (6). Conversely, for building consumer applications with KDS, KCL itself can be used (7).

Let’s delve into how KCL-based consumer applications operate, their compatibility with various streaming options, and the scenarios where choosing them over other stream consumer options is advantageous.

How it works

When a consumer...