Standard SQS queues sustain nearly unlimited throughput per queue (AWS-documented pattern) while FIFO caps at 300 TPS per API batch without high-throughput mode—your May 2026 architecture review should start from those numbers, not from Kafka slogans.
A technical guide to hybrid compute architectures that combine EC2, Lambda, Fargate, and Step Functions — with worked cost calculations, SQS buffering patterns, and decision frameworks based on invocation pattern rather than unit cost.
SQS, MSK Kafka, and Redis queues are not interchangeable. Each has different cost models, ordering guarantees, and failure modes. This guide covers when to use each, how to autoscale workers on queue depth, and how to build idempotent consumers.
Event-driven sounds elegant in design docs. Then a malformed event ships to a critical bus and you spend a weekend debugging fan-out. EventBridge buses, rules, schema discovery, cross-account patterns, and the failure modes you only learn about in production.
