Azure Stream Analytics vs AWS Kinesis - The Ultimate Streaming Data Battle
If you're searching for streaming data solutions, you've doubtless come across Azure Stream Analytics and AWS Kinesis. Both services have their own advantages and disadvantages, but which one is better? Let's find out!
Azure Stream Analytics - What is it?
Azure Stream Analytics is a fully-managed, real-time data analysis service. It allows users to process and analyze streaming data coming from various sources, including Azure Event Hubs, IoT Hubs, or Apache Kafka endpoints. It utilizes a simple SQL-like language to query the streaming data, and the results can be sent to various outputs, including Azure SQL Database, Blob Storage, or Power BI.
AWS Kinesis - What is it?
AWS Kinesis is a real-time data streaming service. It enables users to collect, process, and analyze streaming data from various sources, like websites, mobile apps, IoT devices, or log files. AWS Kinesis offers three different options: Kinesis Data Streams, Kinesis Data Firehose, and Kinesis Data Analytics. Data Streams is the most widely-used option, allowing users to process and analyze data in real-time.
The Comparison
To compare Azure Stream Analytics and AWS Kinesis, we will examine various factors, including scalability, pricing, ease of use, and integrations.
Scalability
Scalability is one of the most important factors when it comes to streaming data services. Both Azure Stream Analytics and AWS Kinesis can handle a vast amount of data with ease. However, AWS Kinesis Data Streams stands out in terms of scalability. It can handle up to 15,000 transactions per second per shard, while Azure Stream Analytics can only handle up to 1 MB per second.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, both services utilize a pay-as-you-go model. Azure Stream Analytics charges users based on the total number of streaming units consumed, which cost $0.028 per streaming unit per hour. In contrast, AWS Kinesis Data Streams charges users based on the number of shards used, which cost $0.015 per shard per hour. Overall, AWS Kinesis Data Streams is cheaper than Azure Stream Analytics.
Ease of Use
Both Azure Stream Analytics and AWS Kinesis have a learning curve, especially for users who are new to real-time data streaming. Nevertheless, Azure Stream Analytics is easier to set up and use for those already familiar with SQL. It also has an intuitive web interface that makes it simple to create and manage stream processing jobs. In contrast, AWS Kinesis requires more technical knowledge to configure and use.
Integrations
Both Azure Stream Analytics and AWS Kinesis have different integrations with other services. Azure Stream Analytics provides integration with various Azure services like Azure Event Hubs, Azure IoT Hub, and Blob Storage. On the other hand, AWS Kinesis allows for integrations with other AWS services, including AWS Lambda, AWS Glue, and Amazon S3.
Conclusion
So, which streaming data service is better? Well, it depends on your needs. Both Azure Stream Analytics and AWS Kinesis have their own advantages and disadvantages. Azure Stream Analytics is easy to use and well-suited for SQL users. AWS Kinesis Data Streams is cheaper and has better scalability. You should carefully evaluate their features to select the one that meets your needs.