Adobe Acrobat Reader vs. AWS OpsWorks vs. ToolRocket PDF Converter

After creating a document, converting it into Adobe Acrobat Reader is usually very easy for storage in my computer, sending/sharing via emails, etc. This also saves a significant amount of unnecessary printing and paper waste, which is great for reducing waste. I don't have to worry about not having the right software/app to view, edit, and share with anyone.

Incentivized

Where you already have some Chef recipes to build your application boxes and are happy to run directly on VMs, OpsWorks really shines. It won't do anything too complex for you, so it only really works well for simple stacks (load balancers, application layers, database layers). If you want to do more complex infrastructure, Cloudformation or Terraform are probably worth looking at.

Incentivized

• It has all the tools that individuals need for reading/doing light editing of PDF files.
• It is the most secure PDF reader on the market, and it tends to get patched with timely updates on a regular basis.
• It usually works very well, as far as the software itself. It doesn't crash a lot, or is particularly an error prone software platform.

Incentivized

• connect between serveral AWS services (EC2, RDS, ELB)
• easy configuration management deployment via Chef

Incentivized

• Being able to add image "stamps" to a document is a little tricky as the stamp has to already be in PDF format (at least on Mac) to work. This mean you have to convert the image to PDF before you can use it as a stamp.
• Being only able to save one signature and one set of initials is a bit of a pain but you can actually use stamps if you need different versions frequently used scribbles for various reasons. The stamp won't secure the document and prevent future changes the same way the signature would though.
• All of the other features you might want to use are only included with Acrobat Pro but the options are all displayed in the Reader app. When clicked they will offer the free trial that leads to a paid subscription. This is more of an annoyance but you can't fault Adobe for trying to make a sale.

Incentivized

• Getting up and running with OpsWorks is a very technical and potentially time-consuming process. You need to know the ins and outs of Chef/Puppet if you really want to get into it and there isn't a convenient way to test out the environment locally so debugging can be time-consuming.
• To take advantage of some of the newer AWS instance types you need to be running on a VPC, which again is a pain if you don't have a DevOps team.
• The error logs and monitoring metrics in OpsWorks are pretty basic and haven't changed much over the years.

Incentivized

To be honest, I do not have any say in the renewal of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. It is managed at an enterprise level, and the decision to renew or not renew is handled well above my pay grade as an external consultant.

Incentivized

Again, Adobe Creative Suite is widely used and backed by an industry leader, making the experience very familiar and common for anyone who has used a PDF and wants more features to interact with it. It also makes copy text a lot easier than just previewing the file.

Unless you pay for a pricey support package getting support on OpsWorks will be pretty slow. Documentation is also relatively limited and sometimes hard to follow when compared to competitors. Generally, we've been able to get the answers we need from OpsWorks support when we run into problems but don't expect rapid responses.

Incentivized

The application is pretty much "plug and play"

Incentivized

We have reviewed DocuSign in comparison to [Adobe] Acrobat Reader [DC's] e-sign capabilities. We found that DocuSign has more robust options when creating contracts and consent capabilities. DocuSign's online UI is much more suited to this type of task as well. However, we decided to stick with [Adobe] Acrobat Reader DC because of the price (DocuSign is more expensive) and we felt we didn't need all of the bells and whistles for contract signature and consent.

OpsWorks isn't really a direct competitor to Terraform/Cloudformation, but it does allow you to do some of the more simple things on offer quite quickly and effectively. Opsworks was used for this reason, along with existing internal knowledge of Chef. Along with some of the other services on offer from AWS, it is good to use as a stepping stone along the way when building your systems - or perhaps it would be entirely suitable for a fairly simple project.

Incentivized

• It's available for free, so there is no excuse to not install
• Contains features that you would normally have to pay for in competitor software, so it has a positive impact on ROI
• Reduces the amount of printing
• Decreases the amount of time spent on regulatory and governance documentation

Incentivized

• very quick way of creating new infrastructure
• low maintenance costs
• easy to create high availability setups thus reducing costs

Incentivized