====== Consumer (Kinesis Data Streams) ======

**What it is:** A consumer is an application that reads and processes records from a Kinesis data stream.

**What it’s for:**
  * Process streaming events in real time (analytics, alerts, ETL).
  * Build multiple downstream systems from the same stream (fan-out).

**Key ideas:**
  * Consumers typically read from shards.
  * You can have multiple consumers reading the same stream.

**Exam cues:**
  * “multiple applications need the same stream” → multiple consumers.

**Hard words:**
  * *consumer* /kənˈsuːmər/: bên tiêu thụ (bên đọc dữ liệu)
  * *downstream* /ˌdaʊnˈstriːm/: hệ phía sau
  * *fan-out* /fæn aʊt/: tỏa ra nhiều nhánh