Why is (no, kafka is never the answer)?
Agree with this 100%. But what about hosted kafka solutions?
> high latency
Not sure I understand this point.
High Latency: Kafka's latency depends on your configuration and infrastructure. It has some of the lowest latency out there when configured correctly.
Curios to know why you find it difficult to look after? It's super stable, and is pretty easy to monitor via JMX.