From 0f2674991b7cb24ee9160c5c8565165882f4ab70 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claus Ibsen Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2026 15:08:53 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Revert "Revert "blog: Apache Camel by the Numbers (#1611)"" This reverts commit e4f039f0a6c5c2b6d713adaee0e3dbe9c5da383f. --- .../2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/featured.svg | 28 ++++ .../2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md | 124 ++++++++++++++++++ content/community/user-stories.md | 13 +- 3 files changed, 159 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) create mode 100644 content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/featured.svg create mode 100644 content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md diff --git a/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/featured.svg b/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/featured.svg new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..14a43804196 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/featured.svg @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Apache Camel + by the Numbers + + 100K + commits + 1,600+ + contributors + 500+ + companies + 311 + components + 19 + years + The world's most widely deployed open source integration framework + diff --git a/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md b/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..b8b8dfa5bcf --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ +--- +title: "Apache Camel by the Numbers: 19 Years of Open Source Integration" +date: 2026-06-04 +draft: false +authors: [davsclaus] +categories: ["Community"] +keywords: ["apache camel", "open source", "statistics", "community", "enterprise integration", "contributors", "adoption"] +preview: "100,000 commits, 1,600+ contributors, 450+ companies, 311 components, 300+ releases — the numbers behind one of the world's most widely deployed open source integration frameworks" +--- + +When the first commit landed on March 19, 2007, Apache Camel was a routing library with a handful of components and a single contributor. Nineteen years later, the git repository has crossed **100,000 commits** from **1,600+ contributors** representing **450+ companies** across more than **20 countries**. The project ships **311 integration components**, has published **300+ releases**, and runs in production at organizations where downtime means grounded flights, blocked payments, or missed diagnoses. + +These aren't marketing estimates. Every number in this post is verifiable from the [git repository](https://github.com/apache/camel), [OpenHub](https://openhub.net/p/camel), [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/apache-camel), and [GitHub](https://github.com/apache/camel). We ran the queries. Here's what the data says. + +## 450+ Companies Contribute Code + +The most revealing statistic isn't the commit count — it's the **450+ distinct corporate email domains** that appear in the git history as commit authors or co-authors — and that's just the provable floor. Many more contributors use personal email (gmail) or GitHub's privacy-masked addresses, as is standard practice in open source. These are engineers who hit a bug, wrote a fix, and contributed it back using their company email. IBM, SAP, Huawei, Nokia, Bosch, Tesco, Target, JD.com, ING Bank, BBC, BP, Rivian, PostNord, Thales, AB InBev — the list spans every industry and continent. + +Companies don't contribute patches to software they evaluate. They contribute to software that runs in production. When a BP engineer fixes an HTTP response handling issue and signs the commit with `@bp.com`, that's evidence of production usage that no case study or marketing page can match. + +Beyond the git history, **11,700+ Stack Overflow questions** tagged `apache-camel` confirm a large, active developer community asking real implementation questions — not tire-kickers, but engineers building systems. + +## Still Growing After 19 Years + +Open source projects typically follow a lifecycle: rapid early growth, a plateau, then decline as the next shiny framework appears. Camel defied this pattern. The 2019–2023 period saw the **highest commit volumes** in the project's history — peaking at nearly 9,000 commits in 2020 alone. More significantly, **192 developers made their first contribution** in 2020. Contribution levels have naturally settled from that peak — a trend visible across many open source projects as AI coding assistants enable existing maintainers to be significantly more productive, reducing the volume of external contributions needed. But even in 2025, 73 new contributors joined — the project continues to attract fresh talent two decades in. + +The sustained contribution rate is partly explained by Camel's architecture. With 311 independent components, contributors can work on `camel-kafka` without understanding `camel-salesforce`. The barrier to entry is a single component, not the entire framework. This modular structure turns what could be an intimidating 8.8-million-line codebase into hundreds of manageable, focused projects. + +## Where the Code Runs + +Numbers on a screen mean nothing without context. Here's where Camel actually runs: + +**UPS** processes [tens of billions of messages per day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDjwr16uaYU) on Apache Camel — the largest known Camel deployment by message volume. + +**CERN** uses Apache Camel for the Large Hadron Collider's control systems — [190 million messages per day](https://www.computerworld.com/article/2726702/open-source-messaging-at--nearly--the-speed-of-light.html) across 85,000 machines with 99.98% uptime. As their principal JMS engineer put it: *"If there is no JMS there is no particle physics."* + +**IndiGo**, [India's largest airline](https://www.redhat.com/en/success-stories/indigo), uses Apache Camel to integrate **400+ applications** — from ticket booking to crew scheduling to load calculation — with zero downtime. The result: **₹500 million per year** saved in fuel costs through more accurate predictions, and post-flight crew reporting cut from 30 minutes to 5. + +**Systematic**, one of Denmark's largest software companies, uses Camel as the integration layer for the Columna CIS electronic patient record system serving **3 of 5 Danish regions** — 60,000 healthcare professionals caring for 3.2 million citizens. + +The [User Stories](/community/user-stories/) page now documents 100+ organizations across healthcare, financial services, aviation, energy, government, retail, logistics, and media — from Fortune 10 companies to national governments. + +## 39% Tests + +Of the 56,000+ Java files in the repository, **22,000 are test files** — 39% of the entire codebase. That ratio reflects a project culture where reliability is non-negotiable. When your users include air traffic control systems (FAA), nuclear research facilities (CERN), and airlines integrating 400+ applications (IndiGo), every commit gets tested. + +The project maintains multiple Long-Term Support (LTS) release lines simultaneously. Each LTS line receives security fixes and critical bug fixes for approximately one year. Migration guides are published for every major version. Backwards compatibility is taken seriously — because breaking changes at CERN or UPS aren't an option. + +## What the Numbers Mean for Developers + +If you're evaluating Apache Camel for a project, the numbers tell you three things: + +**1. You're not alone.** 1,600+ contributors, 450+ companies, and 11,700+ Stack Overflow questions mean that whatever problem you hit, someone has likely hit it before. The community is large enough that questions get answered, bugs get fixed, and components stay maintained. + +**2. It won't disappear.** Projects with one maintainer or one corporate sponsor carry risk. Camel has survived the transitions from SOA to microservices to cloud-native to AI agents — not by pivoting, but by adding components for each new paradigm while keeping the core stable. The Apache Software Foundation governance ensures no single company can acquire, pivot, or shut down the project. + +**3. It scales from prototype to national infrastructure.** The same framework that runs with `camel jbang run hello.yaml` on your laptop processes tens of billions of messages per day at UPS. That's a deployment range few frameworks can match. + +## The Full Data + +For transparency, here are the complete statistics from the git repository and public sources. + +### Repository Statistics (June 2026) + +| Metric | Core Repo | All Repos (Core + Spring Boot + Quarkus + K) | +|---|---|---| +| Total commits | ~100,000 | ~166,000 | +| Contributors (unique emails) | 1,610 | — | +| Corporate email domains | 450+ (author + co-author, provable floor) | — | +| Integration components | 311 | — | +| Java source files | 56,169 | — | +| Test files | 21,939 (39%) | — | +| Lines of Java code | 8.8 million | — | +| Release tags | 301 | — | +| JIRA issues referenced | 17,194 | — | + +### Public Online Sources + +| Source | Metric | Value | +|---|---|---| +| [GitHub](https://github.com/apache/camel) | Stars | 6,200+ | +| [GitHub](https://github.com/apache/camel) | Forks | 5,100+ | +| [OpenHub](https://openhub.net/p/camel) | Assessment | "well-established, mature codebase, very large development team" | +| [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/apache-camel) | Questions | 11,700+ | + +### Commits Per Year + +| Year | Commits | Active Contributors | New Contributors | +|---|---|---|---| +| 2007 | 1,177 | 7 | 7 | +| 2008 | 2,122 | 12 | 8 | +| 2009 | 3,313 | 14 | 4 | +| 2010 | 2,554 | 18 | 5 | +| 2011 | 3,230 | 26 | 9 | +| 2012 | 3,983 | 24 | 4 | +| 2013 | 4,235 | 50 | 33 | +| 2014 | 4,099 | 99 | 78 | +| 2015 | 4,995 | 144 | 95 | +| 2016 | 5,596 | 199 | 157 | +| 2017 | 5,337 | 213 | 155 | +| 2018 | 4,607 | 191 | 125 | +| 2019 | 7,887 | 226 | 160 | +| 2020 | 8,882 | 269 | 192 | +| 2021 | 6,973 | 236 | 148 | +| 2022 | 7,142 | 224 | 121 | +| 2023 | 8,208 | 221 | 120 | +| 2024 | 6,563 | 165 | 81 | +| 2025 | 5,279 | 153 | 73 | + +### Country Representation (from email domain TLDs) + +France, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Russia, Poland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Australia, Romania, Czech Republic, and more. + +### GitHub Stars + +The [apache/camel](https://github.com/apache/camel) repository has **6,200+ stars** on GitHub. If you use Camel and haven't starred the project yet, we'd appreciate it — it helps others discover the project and signals to the open source community that Camel is actively used and valued. + +## Add Your Organization + +If your company or organization uses Apache Camel and would like to be featured on the [User Stories](/community/user-stories/) page, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out on the [mailing list](/community/mailing-list/), open a pull request on [camel-website](https://github.com/apache/camel-website), or contact us on [Zulip chat](https://camel.zulipchat.com/). A one-line description and a link to a public reference (blog post, case study, conference talk, or even a LinkedIn post) is all we need. + +--- + +*All statistics in this post are derived from the [Apache Camel git repository](https://github.com/apache/camel), [OpenHub](https://openhub.net/p/camel), [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/apache-camel), and the [GitHub API](https://docs.github.com/en/rest). The data was collected in June 2026.* diff --git a/content/community/user-stories.md b/content/community/user-stories.md index 6c49d3d7ed2..9e59e2455b6 100644 --- a/content/community/user-stories.md +++ b/content/community/user-stories.md @@ -2,14 +2,14 @@ title: "User Stories" --- -This page is intended as a place to collect user stories and feedback on Apache Camel. If you are using or have tried Apache Camel please add an entry or comment; or post to the mailing list. +This page is intended as a place to collect user stories and feedback on Apache Camel. If your company or organization uses Apache Camel and would like to be featured here, reach out on the [mailing list](/community/mailing-list/), open a pull request on [camel-website](https://github.com/apache/camel-website), or contact us on [Zulip chat](https://camel.zulipchat.com/). A one-line description and a link to a public reference (blog post, case study, conference talk, or LinkedIn post) is all we need. {{< table >}} | Company, Product, or Project | Description | |-------------------------------|------------| |[UPS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDjwr16uaYU)|Processes tens of billions of messages per day on Apache Camel and ActiveMQ on OpenShift. The largest known Apache Camel deployment by message volume.| -|[Sabre Holdings](https://www.camelone.org/camelone-2012/)|National US travel gateway processing 32,000 transactions per second (1.4 billion per day). Migrated from proprietary TPF mainframe to Apache Camel (JBoss Fuse) with significant cost savings and zero system failures. Powers the travel and aviation industry.| -|[Central Bank of Brazil (Pix)](https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/central-bank-of-brazil-case-study)|Brazil's national instant payment system serving 200+ million people. Built on Apache Camel (Red Hat Integration), AMQ Streams (Kafka), and OpenShift. Processes 2,000 transactions/second, 99% within 4 seconds. 72 million+ registrations at launch. Replaced paper-based payments for an entire country. 24x7 availability.| +|[Sabre Holdings](https://www.camelone.org/camelone-2012/)|National US travel gateway — migrated from proprietary TPF mainframe to Apache Camel (JBoss Fuse) with significant cost savings and zero system failures. Processes tens of thousands of transactions per second for airlines and hotels worldwide. Presented at CamelOne 2011 and 2012.| + |[Vocalink, a Mastercard company](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xQKG1TSrZc)|Camel is the backbone of Vocalink's core real-time payment platform, processing millions of transactions.| |[Systematic](https://systematic.com/int/industries/healthcare/solutions/hospital-care/columna-cis/)|Denmark's largest privately owned software company and Scandinavia's leading healthcare IT provider. Their Columna CIS electronic patient record is the most widespread EMR in Denmark, serving [3 of 5 Danish regions](https://systematic.com/int/industries/healthcare/news/news/cis-new-electronic-health-record-system-gives-concrete-benefits-for-the-regions/) (Central, North, Southern Denmark) — approximately 60,000 doctors, nurses, and secretaries caring for 3.2 million citizens. Apache Camel powers the integration layer connecting Columna with hospital systems, labs, and national registries.| |[Washington Health Benefit Exchange](https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/washington-health-benefits-exchange-case-study)|US state healthcare marketplace serving 2 million+ residents (1 in 4 in Washington state). Uses Apache Camel (Red Hat Fuse), AMQ, and 3scale on OpenShift. API response times improved 50%. 75 APIs migrated in 100 days. 160% enrollment growth. 2022 Red Hat Innovation Award winner.| @@ -34,14 +34,15 @@ This page is intended as a place to collect user stories and feedback on Apache |[CERN](https://www.camelone.org/camelone-2012/)|The European Organization for Nuclear Research uses Apache ActiveMQ and Camel for the Large Hadron Collider's mission-critical 24x7x365 controls, monitoring, and alarm systems. Processes 190 million messages per day across 85,000 machines with 99.98% uptime. As CERN's principal JMS engineer stated: ["If there is no JMS there is no particle physics."](https://www.computerworld.com/article/2726702/open-source-messaging-at--nearly--the-speed-of-light.html) Progress FUSE underpinned CERN's search for the Higgs boson ("God Particle").| |[Murex MXopenconnect](https://www.elenjicalsolutions.com/elenjical-solutions-pioneers-murexs-mxopenconnect-development-framework/)|Capital markets trading platform integration framework built on Apache Camel. Connects trading platforms, clearing systems, and core banking for 300+ financial institutions worldwide.| |[IndiGo](https://www.redhat.com/en/success-stories/indigo)|India's largest airline (25,000+ employees). Uses Apache Camel (Red Hat Fuse) to integrate 400+ applications with zero downtime. Saves ₹500 million/year in fuel costs through more accurate predictions. Post-flight crew reporting reduced from 30 minutes to 5 minutes.| -|[Korean Air](https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/korean-air-case-study)|South Korea's largest airline (17,000 employees, 125 destinations). Uses Apache Camel (Red Hat Application Foundations) for Cargo and Passenger Integration Platforms — 100+ passenger systems and 50+ freight systems integrated. Transaction speed doubled. Replaced 20+ year old legacy platforms after evaluating IBM, TIBCO, and others.| + +|[Korean Air](https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/korean-air-case-study)|South Korea's largest airline (17,000 employees, 125 destinations). Uses Red Hat Integration for Cargo and Passenger Integration Platforms — 100+ passenger systems and 50+ freight systems integrated. Transaction speed doubled. Replaced 20+ year old legacy platforms after evaluating IBM, TIBCO, and others.| |[FAA](https://www.camelone.org/camelone-2011/)|The US Federal Aviation Administration uses Apache Camel and ActiveMQ for the SWIM program — real-time aviation weather, flight, and surveillance data sharing across the National Airspace System.| |[Lockheed Martin](https://www.theserverside.com/news/2240186446/CamelOne-2013-Lockheed-engineers-explain-Java-and-C-messaging)|Integration of Air Traffic Control systems using Enterprise Integration Patterns and Apache Camel. Camel routes integrating Java with legacy C++ flight scheduling systems.| |[Netflix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ckJ7QgLW0#t=480)|Netflix uses Apache Camel as part of the cloud payment system.| |[Standard Chartered Bank](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/gic-and-standard-chartered-bank-named-winners-red-hat-apac-innovation-awards-2020-singapore)|Digital transformation across 60 markets using Apache Camel and OpenShift. Winner of Red Hat APAC Innovation Award 2020.| |[Citigroup](https://jobs.citi.com/job/pune/apac-trade-technology-integration-developer/287/30025152400)|Global financial services corporation migrating APAC trade technology from TIBCO to Apache Camel (Red Hat Fuse) on Spring Boot. Enterprise integration for trading applications handling SWIFT, EDI, ISO XML, and NACHA financial formats. Citi Cyber Security Operations actively monitors Camel and [reported CVE-2025-29891](/security/CVE-2025-29891.html).| |[Banco Galicia](https://www.redhat.com/en/success-stories/banco-galicia-NLP)|One of Argentina's largest private banks (3 million customers, 150,000 businesses). Built an AI/NLP platform for digital onboarding on OpenShift, using Apache Camel (Red Hat Fuse) and AMQ to integrate the AI platform with core banking systems. Reduced onboarding from days to minutes with 90% accuracy. Winner of 2023 Red Hat Innovation Award.| -|[stc pay](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/stc-pay-turns-red-hat-openshift-help-unlock-digital-services-innovation)|Saudi Arabia's leading fintech (5 million customers). Uses Apache Camel (Red Hat Integration), AMQ, and OpenShift for its mobile wallet platform — send, receive, and manage money via mobile devices. API-driven microservices architecture across hybrid cloud. Expanding into open finance and new regions.| + |[Amway](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-year-evolution-our-integration-journey-apache-camel-prathipati-3k3yc/)|Fortune 500 consumer goods company with a 4-year Apache Camel journey. Runs production integrations on GCP Cloud Run. Now adding AI-augmented pipeline with agentic code reviews on every commit.| |[Tata Motors](https://www.redhat.com/en/success-stories/tatamotors)|India's largest automobile manufacturer (Tata Group, USD 113B, 80,000+ employees). Uses Apache Camel (Red Hat Fuse), AMQ, and 3scale on OpenShift for dealer integration across 1,000+ dealers. Onboarding reduced from 30+ days to 7 days. API-driven transactions increased from 20% to 95%. 2022 Red Hat Innovation Award honorable mention.| |[BP](https://github.com/apache/camel/commit/1067b19b90f32a7490012f05437bd11fb65d53b1)|Global energy company (Fortune 10) uses Apache Camel for enterprise integration. BP engineers contribute directly to the Apache Camel open source project.| @@ -81,7 +82,7 @@ This page is intended as a place to collect user stories and feedback on Apache |[Banco da Amazônia](https://www.redhat.com/en/success-stories/Banco-da-amazonia)|Brazilian federal government bank for the Amazon region (95% government-owned). Uses Apache Camel (Red Hat Fuse), 3scale, and OpenShift. Credit processing reduced from 6 months to 24 hours. 370% year-over-year digital credit growth. Serves remote Amazon communities — family farmers, fishers, and miners. Won Brazil's Banking Transformation Award (ESG).| |[Ally Financial](https://www.redhat.com/en/success-stories/ally-financial)|US digital financial services leader (8,000 employees). Uses Apache Camel (Red Hat Fuse) and OpenShift for online banking, auto finance, insurance, and investing platforms. 2019 Red Hat Innovation Awards honorable mention.| |[Banco Credicoop](https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/bccl-case-study)|Argentine cooperative bank serving 2.3 million customers. Replaced legacy ESB with Apache Camel (Red Hat Fuse) on OpenShift for faster service delivery across all channels.| -|[Raiffeisen Bank Bosnia](https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/raiffeisen-bank-customer-case-study)|Raiffeisen Bank dd Bosna i Hercegovina (1,300+ employees). Uses Apache Camel (Red Hat Application Foundations), Kafka Streams, and 3scale on OpenShift for core banking on Temenos Transact. Cut time-to-market from months to weekly releases. Real-time payment processing with auto-scaling based on transaction volume.| + |[Asiakastieto (Enento Group)](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/asiakastieto-unlocks-open-banking-innovation-red-hat)|Finnish fintech serving the Nordic banking sector. Built Account Insight open banking platform using Apache Camel (Red Hat Integration), Quarkus, and 3scale on OpenShift. Analyzes bank account data for credit assessment under EU PSD2. Reduced production deployment cycle by 95%. Quarkus delivered 90% less memory and 70% less CPU.| |[Guidewire Integration Framework](https://www.guidewire.com/blog/technology/cloud-integration-framework-the-right-tools-for-the-job/)|Integration Gateway is an open framework for developing integration apps that bridge Guidewire APIs with external apps and services. It is based on Apache Camel.| |[WW (Weight Watchers)](https://medium.com/ww-tech-blog/migrating-apps-from-mulesoft-to-red-hat-fuse-apache-camel-a6d121c99515)|Migrated 200+ MuleSoft applications to Apache Camel in 8 months. Observed lower memory footprint, faster performance, and high production stability. Subsequently used Camel for X12 EDI transaction processing.| From f1f38560c53be65194e0c76ba8fb40da0c05b069 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Claus Ibsen Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2026 08:44:40 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Add third-party technology tracking data to blog post Five independent sources tracking 3,000-8,600 companies using Camel. 6sense detail: 714 companies with 10,000+ employees. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 --- content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md | 14 ++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+) diff --git a/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md b/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md index b8b8dfa5bcf..b1a9c0d0bf4 100644 --- a/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md +++ b/content/blog/2026/06/camel-by-the-numbers/index.md @@ -111,6 +111,20 @@ For transparency, here are the complete statistics from the git repository and p France, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Russia, Poland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Australia, Romania, Czech Republic, and more. +### Third-Party Technology Tracking + +Several independent technology tracking services detect Apache Camel usage across their datasets. Each uses different detection methods (web signals, job postings, technology fingerprinting), which accounts for the variation in numbers: + +| Source | Companies using Camel | +|---|---| +| [Enlyft](https://enlyft.com/tech/products/apache-camel) | 8,611 | +| [ReadyContacts](https://www.readycontacts.com/target-account-profiling/apache-camel/) | 6,386 | +| [TheirStack](https://theirstack.com/en/technology/apache-camel) | 4,721 | +| [Reo.Dev](https://www.reo.dev/technology/apache-camel) | 4,106 | +| [6sense](https://6sense.com/tech/data-integration/apache-camel-market-share) | 3,060 | + +6sense provides additional detail: of the 3,060 companies they track, **714 have 10,000+ employees** and **572 have 1,000-4,999 employees**. The top countries are the United States (49%), United Kingdom (9%), and Brazil (9%). + ### GitHub Stars The [apache/camel](https://github.com/apache/camel) repository has **6,200+ stars** on GitHub. If you use Camel and haven't starred the project yet, we'd appreciate it — it helps others discover the project and signals to the open source community that Camel is actively used and valued.