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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Apache Kafka

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AApache Kafka is an open-source stream processing platform developed by the Apache Software Foundation written in Scala and Java. The Kafka event streaming platform is used by thousands of companies for high-performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications.N/A

    Azure IoT Edge

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AAzure IoT Edge is a fully managed service built on Azure IoT Hub. Users can deploy cloud workloads—artificial intelligence, Azure and third-party services, or business logic—to run on Internet of Things (IoT) edge devices via standard containers. The vendor states that by moving certain workloads to the edge of the network, devices spend less time communicating with the cloud, react more quickly to local changes, and operate reliably even in extended offline periods.N/A
    Pricing
    Apache KafkaAzure IoT Edge
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Apache KafkaAzure IoT Edge
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Apache KafkaAzure IoT Edge
    Considered Both Products
    Apache
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    17 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Apache KafkaAzure IoT Edge
    Internet of Things
    Comparison of Internet of Things features of Apache Kafka and Microsoft Azure IoT Edge
    Feature
    Apache Kafka
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Azure IoT Edge
    8.4
    4 Ratings
    5% above category average
    IoT Device Management00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Device Security00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    IoT Data Management00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    IoT Analytics00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
    IoT Integration00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Apache KafkaAzure IoT Edge
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    AWS IoT Core
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM MQ
    Score9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    TIBCO Messaging
    Score7.7 out of 10
    AWS IoT Core
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Apache KafkaAzure IoT Edge
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Apache KafkaAzure IoT Edge
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Apache
    Apache Kafka is well-suited for most data-streaming use cases. Amazon Kinesis and Azure EventHubs, unless you have a specific use case where using those cloud PaAS for your data lakes, once set up well, Apache Kafka will take care of everything else in the background. Azure EventHubs, is good for cross-cloud use cases, and Amazon Kinesis - I have no real-world experience. But I believe it is the same.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Deployment of mission critical business support solutions particularly those that support virtual learning and video conferencing environments. This is because they help organisations such as the university to effectively transition to a digitally compliant organisation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Apache
    • Really easy to configure. I've used other message brokers such as RabbitMQ and compared to them, Kafka's configurations are very easy to understand and tweak.
    • Very scalable: easily configured to run on multiple nodes allowing for ease of parallelism (assuming your queues/topics don't have to be consumed in the exact same order the messages were delivered)
    • Not exactly a feature, but I trust Kafka will be around for at least another decade because active development has continued to be strong and there's a lot of financial backing from Confluent and LinkedIn, and probably many other companies who are using it (which, anecdotally, is many).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • It works even if there is no internet at client location. It will record all the generated data and only send them to cloud storage when there is internet connection.
    • It allows you to bring cloud functionality down to Edge location in the form of docker container.
    • It also supports two way communication from device to cloud and vice-versa.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Apache
    • Sometimes it becomes difficult to monitor our Kafka deployments. We've been able to overcome it largely using AWS MSK, a managed service for Apache Kafka, but a separate monitoring dashboard would have been great.
    • Simplify the process for local deployment of Kafka and provide a user interface to get visibility into the different topics and the messages being processed.
    • Learning curve around creation of broker and topics could be simplified
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • For some reason, the containerized architecture was also making this very hard
    • Had some issues when debugging edge modules, needs a professional grade remote debugging
    • Industrial automation still requires attention. OPC-UA was good but Modbus or custom PLCs etc was painful to set up
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Apache
    Kafka is quickly becoming core product of the organization, indeed it is replacing older messaging systems. No better alternatives found yet
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Apache
    Apache Kafka is highly recommended to develop loosely coupled, real-time processing applications. Also, Apache Kafka provides property based configuration. Producer, Consumer and broker contain their own separate property file
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Most of the time it works perfectly, does not require any attention, but when there is a problem, it's really hard to diagnose it. I think the documentation for the positive scenarios are good on the Microsoft side, but for negative scenarios, I don't think there is enough community help out there, in my opinion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Apache
    Support for Apache Kafka (if willing to pay) is available from Confluent that includes the same time that created Kafka at Linkedin so they know this software in and out. Moreover, Apache Kafka is well known and best practices documents and deployment scenarios are easily available for download. For example, from eBay, Linkedin, Uber, and NYTimes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Apache
    I used other messaging/queue solutions that are a lot more basic than Confluent Kafka, as well as another solution that is no longer in the market called Xively, which was bought and "buried" by Google. In comparison, these solutions offer way fewer functionalities and respond to other needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The reason Behind this is the cost, as Microsoft provides solutions and integrations of services cheaper than AWS.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Apache
    • Positive: Get a quick and reliable pub/sub model implemented - data across components flows easily.
    • Positive: it's scalable so we can develop small and scale for real-world scenarios
    • Negative: it's easy to get into a confusing situation if you are not experienced yet or something strange has happened (rare, but it does). Troubleshooting such situations can take time and effort.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Very valuable return on investment for IT capex committed to the deployment
    • Improvements in overall organisational efficiency and agility
    • Repositioning the organisation to become digitally transformed
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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