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Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) vs. Blackbird API Development vs. Mirantis Kubernetes Engine

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft's Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is designed to make deploying and managing containerized applications easy. It offers serverless Kubernetes, an integrated continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) experience, and enterprise-grade security and governance. It allows development and operations teams on a single platform to rapidly build, deliver, and scale applications with confidence.N/A

    Blackbird API Development

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AAmbassador offers a suite of products designed to deliver API developer experiences that fuel innovation. Blackbird API Development Platform enables developers to spec, mock, write boilerplate code, and debug APIs faster.

    $10

    per month (for a single user and 5 concurrent instances)

    Mirantis Kubernetes Engine

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AThe Mirantis Kubernetes Engine (formerly Docker Enterprise, acquired by Mirantis in November 2019)aims to let users ship code faster. Mirantis Kubernetes Engine gives users one set of APIs and tools to deploy, manage, and observe secure-by-default, certified, batteries-included Kubernetes clusters on any infrastructure: public cloud, private cloud, or bare metal.

    $500

    per year per node

    Pricing
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Blackbird API DevelopmentMirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Free
    $0.00
    per year
    Basic
    $500.00
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Blackbird API DevelopmentMirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Free Trial
    NoYesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——These pricing options are compatible with Linux or Windows Server and are per year, per node. The basic version requires maximum online purchase not to exceed 50 nodes. Support/professional services are not included.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Blackbird API DevelopmentMirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Considered Multiple Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Datawire, Inc., dba Ambassador
    No answer on this topic
    Mirantis
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    90%
    Would buy again
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    83%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    80%
    Delivers good value for the price
    4 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    78%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Blackbird API DevelopmentMirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Container Management
    Comparison of Container Management features of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Blackbird API Development and Mirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Feature
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
    7.8
    5 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Blackbird API Development
    -
    Ratings
    Mirantis Kubernetes Engine
    -
    Ratings
    Security and Isolation8.75 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Container Orchestration8.05 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cluster Management8.05 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Storage Management7.85 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Resource Allocation and Optimization7.95 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Discovery Tools7.25 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Update Rollouts and Rollbacks7.05 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self-Healing and Recovery8.25 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Analytics, Monitoring, and Logging7.55 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Blackbird API DevelopmentMirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Small Businesses
    Mirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Score8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Google Cloud Run
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)
    Score8.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SUSE Rancher
    Score9.4 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    SUSE Rancher
    Score9.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Blackbird API DevelopmentMirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.4
    (10 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.3
    (37 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.7
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.8
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)Blackbird API DevelopmentMirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    AKS works very well for running containerized applications that require high availability and scalability. This includes systems like our HRIS platform and customer-facing web applications. AKS is a good choice when applications are broken into multiple services that need independent scaling and deployment. It provides the flexibility needed to manage these architectures effectively. But for single, low-traffic applications or simple internal tools, AKS can be overkill. For scenarios like that Azure App Service would be better.
    Incentivized
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    Datawire, Inc., dba Ambassador
    Ambassador is really well suited for scenarios were you need to give power and freedom to your developers so they can take advantage of the self-service approach. One of the few scenarios I can not recommend using Ambassador is in the case you are planning to not using Kubernetes as it is a solution designed to work specifically on that platform
    Incentivized
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    Mirantis
    [Mirantis Cloud Native Suite (Docker Enterprise)] is the most advanced tool till now, which works as a VMs
    and separates any single application from the dependencies. Also, this tool is
    helping me in the agile development of the processes. It is strongly recommended to
    almost all major organizations.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Microsoft
    • AKS makes it easier to replicate data to multiple regions
    • Azure portal make it easier to manage the resources of the organization
    Incentivized
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    Datawire, Inc., dba Ambassador
    • Simple syntax
    • Easy to understand
    • Easy to install
    Incentivized
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    Mirantis
    • Containers - Docker is the go-to when using Containers, which are super useful if you need an environment that works both for Windows and Linux
    • Efficiency - Docker is very lightweight and doesn't demand too much from your CPU or server
    • CI/CD - Docker is excellent for plumbing into your build pipeline. It integrates nicely, is reliable, and has an easy set up.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Microsoft
    • Steep learning curve
    • Expected charges are unclear until you see real production usage
    • Operations teams need to learn an entirely new skill set
    Incentivized
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    Datawire, Inc., dba Ambassador
    • Documentation is not updated
    • Implementing external authentication doesn't always work as described in the documentation
    • The Administration console is limited
    Incentivized
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    Mirantis
    • Containers are often opaque - if a container doesn't work out of the box, it's messy to fix.
    • Logging is complexified by the multiple containers and logs are often not piped to places you expect them to be.
    • Networking is complexified due to internal port mapping between containers, etc.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Microsoft
    As already said, the UI/CLI and even terraform are perfectly fine, but certain details could be documented better. For instance, if I want to secure the whole Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with my own managed keys, then it is very complex and hard to get there. Not really a single source that gives you the whole picture. Besides that, it is still good to use, in most cases intuitive but details mentioned as above can be tricky.
    Incentivized
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    Datawire, Inc., dba Ambassador
    It's great! it's amazingly simple to use and the best part is the self-service approach. I also like how easy it is to add a new route to a endpoint with the mappings definition.
    Incentivized
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    Mirantis
    Docker's CLI has a lot of options, and they aren't all intuitive. And there are so many tools in the space (Docker Compose, Docker Swarm, etc) that have their own configuration as well. So while there is a lot to learn, most concepts transfer easily and can be learned once and applied across everything.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    Microsoft support was really good, whenever we raise any ticket they come back to us within a couple of hours.
    Incentivized
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    Datawire, Inc., dba Ambassador
    Overall the support has been great and quick to answer the requests I've submitted in the past. I was originally using the community/open source version and I can't say it was the best experience I had, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't great. I believe the biggest issue was that they refer to the documentation a lot but the documentation isn't updated regularly so I feel it's lagging behind the most recent versions.
    Incentivized
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    Mirantis
    The community support for Docker is fantastic. There is almost always an answer for any issue I might encounter day-to-day, either on Stack Overflow, a helpful blog post, or the community Slack workspace. I've never come across a problem that I was unable to solve via some searching around in the community.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Amazon EKS stacked up very well and had better performance in some areas. However, Azure Kubernetes Service was a better fit given our Azure environment.
    Incentivized
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    Datawire, Inc., dba Ambassador
    They both offer about the same in terms of end goal and purpose of use and scenarios. However, Ambassador does way better in terms of simplifying the syntax and makes offer a little bit more of control by adding the concepts of hosts, mappings while staying away from a hard to read single file configuration.
    Incentivized
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    Mirantis
    We've used XAMPP, PHPmyAdmin and similar local environments (our app is on PHP). Because of how easy you can change the configuration of libraries on PHP and versions (which is SO painful on XAMPP or other friendly LAMP local servers) we are using Docker right now. Also, being sure that the environment is exactly the same makes things easier for developing.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • We had to spend more time on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) than on AWS and GCP to get our kubernetes cluster up and running
    • The resources on nodes need to be left out unused, so effectively it is wasting money there
    • It definitely made us spend more time into maintaining kubernetes
    Incentivized
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    Datawire, Inc., dba Ambassador
    • Reduced downtime by redirecting traffic between DC.
    • Reduced engineering time, don't have to dedicate 1 person to manage it.
    • Increased training costs in the short term.
    Incentivized
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    Mirantis
    • Docker has made it possible for us to deploy code faster, increasing the productivity of our development teams.
    • Docker has made it possible for us to decentralize our build and release system. This means that teams can deploy on their own schedule and our dev ops team can concentrate on building better tools rather than deploying for the teams
    • Docker has allowed us to virtualize our entire development process and made it much simpler to build out new data centers. This, in turn, is significantly increasing our ROI by providing a path forward for internationalization.
    Incentivized
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