How Alibaba’s RocketMQ Achieved Low‑Latency Success and Joined Apache

Preface

This year's Double‑Eleven was extraordinary for Alibaba's middleware messaging team. The stability group’s low‑latency storage solution kept 99.996% of latencies under 10 ms, with GC‑induced pauses under 50 ms, a result worth sharing at next JavaOne.

Motivation

The idea of donating the best project to Apache originated in mid‑2014 while developing a Maven dependency‑mediator component. After evaluating mainstream open‑source solutions and building a custom wheel, the team faced the classic challenge of sustaining a project beyond the initial 0‑to‑1 phase.

MQ Introduction

RocketMQ, open‑sourced by Alibaba in 2012, is a third‑generation distributed messaging middleware with low latency for high‑frequency trading and strong throughput for real‑time analytics. It enjoys a large global community, dozens of patents, and recent recognition such as the CJK OSS award and inclusion in Awesome‑java.

Donation Process

The donation journey began in 2014, involving discussions with Apache mentors (Brian, John, Luke, Jiang Ning, Bruce) and preparation of a proposal. After several rounds of feedback, a vote on 11‑11 resulted in 10 + 1 votes in favor, moving the project into the Apache incubation stage.

Future of MQ

Alibaba continues to develop both an open‑source version (RocketMQ) and a commercial cloud version (MQ). The team commits to improving quality, standardization, and fostering a diverse contributor base worldwide.

Call to Action

The authors invite engineers interested in building world‑class internet middleware to join, contribute, and help shape the future of distributed messaging.