In most integration cases there is a need to monitor the messages flowing through the system. It is usually achieved by intercepting the message and redirecting it to a different location like console, filesystem or the database. It is important that such functionality should not modify the original message and influence the processing path.

Use the Wire Tap pattern when

• You need to monitor messages flowing through the system
• You need to redirect the same, unchanged message to two different endpoints/paths

• Gregor Hohpe, Bobby Woolf - Enterprise Integration Patterns
• Apache Camel - Documentation