Apache Camel

What Camel does and why it matters

Apache Camel is a versatile integration framework that implements the Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIPs) - the standard design vocabulary for system integration established by Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf. Rather than writing custom integration code for every connection between systems, Camel provides a consistent framework with over 300 pre-built connectors and a declarative routing language.

Where point-to-point integrations create fragile spaghetti architectures that become impossible to maintain, Camel provides structured, testable and observable integration routes. Each route defines how data flows between systems - what to consume, how to transform it, where to route it and what to do when things go wrong.

Camel has been in production use since 2007 and is one of the most mature projects in the Apache ecosystem. It is used extensively in financial services, healthcare, logistics and government, including by organisations that require certified integration platforms.

How we deploy Camel for business automation

We use Camel as the integration backbone that connects your business systems to the rest of the automation stack. When Airflow orchestrates a business process that spans multiple systems, Camel handles the individual integration steps - pulling data from your ERP, transforming it into the format your CRM expects, pushing updates to your data warehouse and sending notifications through your messaging platform.

For legacy system modernisation, Camel is particularly valuable. It wraps legacy protocols and data formats - SOAP web services, FTP file transfers, fixed-width flat files, proprietary database interfaces - and exposes them as modern REST APIs or event streams. Your new applications integrate with clean interfaces while the legacy complexity is contained within Camel routes.

Key capabilities we implement

300+ connectors - integrate with virtually any system through pre-built components. Connect to Salesforce, SAP, databases via JDBC, file systems, email, messaging systems, REST APIs, SOAP services, cloud storage, IoT protocols and hundreds more. New connectors are added with every release.

Enterprise Integration Patterns - implement content-based routing, message transformation, splitting, aggregation, filtering, enrichment and error handling using established patterns that integration professionals worldwide understand. Your integration logic is readable, maintainable and well-documented by design.

Data transformation - transform data between any formats using built-in support for JSON, XML, CSV, YAML, Avro, Protobuf, fixed-width, HL7 and custom formats. Complex transformations that would require extensive custom code are expressed declaratively in Camel's data format API.

Camel K and Quarkus - deploy integrations as lightweight, cloud-native applications on Kubernetes. Camel K enables serverless integration patterns where routes scale to zero when idle and auto-scale under load, reducing infrastructure costs for intermittent workloads.

Error handling and reliability - configure dead letter channels, retry policies, circuit breakers and transaction support. When an integration fails, Camel handles recovery automatically according to your defined policies, logging failures for investigation without losing messages.

Testing and observability - test integration routes in isolation using Camel's built-in testing framework. Monitor running routes with JMX metrics, health checks and distributed tracing through OpenTelemetry.

Camel in your automation stack

Camel serves as the connective tissue between your existing business systems and the Apache automation platform. Kafka provides the event streaming layer, Airflow orchestrates the workflow, and Camel handles the last-mile integration with each individual system. This separation means you can modernise incrementally - replacing legacy integrations one route at a time without disrupting your broader architecture.