What exactly is Apache Camel?

Apache Camel is an open-source integration framework that provides a uniform interface for integrating various applications and protocols. It is designed to make it easy to integrate different systems by providing a library of "Enterprise Integration Patterns" (EIPs) and a simple routing and mediation engine.

Camel allows you to define routing and mediation rules in a variety of domain-specific languages, including Java, Spring XML, Scala, and Groovy. It supports a wide range of transports and protocols, including HTTP, JMS, file systems, JDBC, and more.

Camel is often used in enterprise environments to build integrations between different systems, such as data synchronization between databases, file transfer between systems, and messaging between applications. It is known for its simplicity and flexibility, making it a popular choice for integration tasks.