# Overview

## In this learning path

- [Introduction](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/kafka-azure/)
- [Overview](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/kafka-azure/background/)
- [Create an Arm-based cloud virtual machine using Microsoft Cobalt 100 CPU](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/kafka-azure/create-instance/)
- [Install Kafka](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/kafka-azure/deploy/)
- [Run baseline testing with Kafka on Azure Arm VM](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/kafka-azure/baseline/)
- [Benchmark with official Kafka tools](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/kafka-azure/benchmarking/)
- [Next Steps](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/kafka-azure/_next-steps/)

## Cobalt 100 Arm-based processor
Azure’s Cobalt 100 is built on Microsoft’s first-generation, in-house Arm-based processor: the Cobalt 100. Designed entirely by Microsoft and based on Arm’s Neoverse N2 architecture, this 64-bit CPU delivers improved performance and energy efficiency across a broad spectrum of cloud-native, scale-out Linux workloads. These include web and application servers, data analytics, open-source databases, caching systems, and more. Running at 3.4 GHz, the Cobalt 100 processor allocates a dedicated physical core for each virtual CPU (vCPU), ensuring consistent and predictable performance.

To learn more about Cobalt 100, refer to the blog [Announcing the preview of new Azure virtual machine based on the Azure Cobalt 100 processor](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azurecompute/announcing-the-preview-of-new-azure-vms-based-on-the-azure-cobalt-100-processor/4146353).

## Apache Kafka
Apache Kafka is a high-performance, open-source distributed event streaming platform designed for building real-time data pipelines and streaming applications.

It allows you to publish, subscribe to, store, and process streams of records in a fault-tolerant and scalable manner. Kafka stores data in topics, which are partitioned and replicated across a cluster to ensure durability and high availability.

Kafka is widely used for messaging, log aggregation, event sourcing, real-time analytics, and integrating large-scale data systems. Learn more from the [Apache Kafka official website](https://kafka.apache.org/) and the [Apache Kafka documentation](https://kafka.apache.org/documentation).