ActiveMQ is an open-source message broker written in Java that uses the Java Message Service (JMS). It provides features that help promote communication between distributed systems. ActiveMQ is often used instead of databases for reliable communication between processes because databases can fall over when handling high volumes of messages, whereas message-oriented middleware like ActiveMQ are optimized to handle large volumes of messages efficiently. Key components of ActiveMQ include KahaDB for fast persistence and JMS, which is an API that supports formal messaging between systems.