Use a message broker for your background jobs

This blog explores how background jobs in software function like everyday multitasking—handling tasks behind the scenes so your main application can stay focused and responsive. Just as you delegate household chores to stay productive, background jobs manage non-urgent tasks independently.

We’ve all had those moments where we need to - or just want to - get things done in the background while focusing on something else. It’s like when you’re making dinner and ask someone to throw a load of laundry into the wash. You don’t need to do it yourself; you ask someone else to handle it. You also don’t need to check on the laundry constantly; it operates independently, allowing you to remain productive elsewhere. Similarly, in software, background jobs handle tasks that don’t require immediate attention, keeping the main application focused and responsive.

Imagine the person you asked to do the laundry is busy with something else, like cleaning the basement. They tell you, “I’ve added the laundry task to my to-do list, and I’ll let you know when it’s done.” This is where background jobs and message queues come in: just as your helper tracks the task and updates you; software systems use queues to manage and queue up background jobs and optionally notify you once they’re completed.

Here’s an example: You’re running a web application, and each time a user uploads a photo, it needs resizing, filtering, and storing. Instead of making the user wait for all these processes to complete, you can push the job to a message queue, allowing it to be processed in the background asynchronously. This way, the user can continue interacting with your app without delays while the background job completes it in parallel.

Message queues - a todo list for systems

Message queues enable this multitasking by providing a “to-do list” for the system. Tasks are added to the queue and processed by workers as resources become available. This provides several key benefits:

Separation of tasks, decoupling

Message queues help keep things responsive by separating background jobs from the main application processes. Users won’t be bothered by the load of the tasks happening behind the scenes.

Scalability on demand

As your application grows, you can easily scale your workers to match the queue’s demand. Message queues allow you to add or reduce workers quickly based on job load.

Reliability

If a worker fails while processing a job, message queues ensure the task isn’t lost - it stays in the queue until it can be picked up again. This makes background processing resilient and reliable.

Asynchronous processing

Background jobs don’t need to happen immediately, so queuing them asynchronously frees up your application to handle other user requests without delay.

LavinMQ for background jobs

With LavinMQ, you get a queueing system that is always available, fast, and easy to deploy. It’s fully compatible with AMQP 0.9.1 clients, making it an excellent option for background processing without adding complexity!

Whether your use case involves sending thousands of emails per second, resizing images, or processing IoT data from smart devices, LavinMQ can help. It manages real-time updates for taxi and delivery services, handles massive Black Friday traffic, and supports other high-demand scenarios. With LavinMQ, your application can focus on what matters to the user while other parts of the application take care of background tasks.