Akka Distributed Data

Akka Distributed Data is a module within the Akka toolkit that provides a framework for managing eventually consistent, highly available, and replicated data across a cluster of Akka nodes. It leverages Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) to allow concurrent updates without coordination,…

Key facts

First appeared
2015
Category
technology
Problem solved
Akka Distributed Data was created to solve the challenge of sharing mutable state reliably across an Akka Cluster without resorting to complex, blocking, and often brittle strong-consistency protocols (like Paxos or Raft) for every piece of data. It addresses the need for highly available data in distributed systems, even during network partitions, where eventual consistency is acceptable and preferable for performance and resilience.
Platforms
JVM (Java Virtual Machine), Windows, cloud_environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), macOS, Linux

Related technologies

Notable users

  • Many companies using Akka for high-scale distributed systems, particularly in finance, gaming, e-commerce, and telecommunications sectors. Specific user lists are often proprietary but Akka itself is widely used by companies like Adobe, PayPal, Verizon.
  • Lightbend (Akka's vendor)