Azure Service Fabric vs Kubernetes

Overview

Kubernetes

Stacks61.2K

Followers52.8K

Votes685

Azure Service Fabric

Stacks103

Followers284

Votes26

GitHub Stars3.0K

Forks399

Azure Service Fabric vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?

Azure Service Fabric and Kubernetes are both popular container orchestration platforms that offer a range of features and capabilities. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two platforms.

Infrastructure setup: Azure Service Fabric is a platform that abstracts away the underlying infrastructure, allowing developers to focus on building applications. On the other hand, Kubernetes is an open-source platform that can be deployed on any infrastructure, giving users more control over their infrastructure setup.
Deployment and scaling: Azure Service Fabric provides built-in support for microservices, making it easy to deploy and scale applications composed of multiple services. In contrast, Kubernetes focuses on managing containers and offers more flexibility in terms of containerization, allowing users to deploy and scale containerized applications.
Service discovery and load balancing: Azure Service Fabric includes built-in service discovery and load balancing features, making it easier for applications to discover and communicate with other services in the cluster. Kubernetes relies on external tools and services for service discovery and load balancing, offering more flexibility but requiring additional configuration and setup.
Monitoring and diagnostics: Azure Service Fabric provides built-in monitoring and diagnostics capabilities, allowing developers to easily monitor the health and performance of their applications. Kubernetes, on the other hand, requires the use of external monitoring and logging tools for monitoring and diagnostics, offering more flexibility but requiring additional setup and configuration.
Application lifecycle management: Azure Service Fabric provides comprehensive application lifecycle management capabilities, including rolling upgrades and versioning, making it easier to manage and upgrade applications. Kubernetes also supports rolling upgrades but does not provide built-in versioning and advanced application lifecycle management features.
Support and ecosystem: Azure Service Fabric is a Microsoft product and has strong integration with other Azure services, providing a consistent and unified experience for users. Kubernetes, being an open-source platform, has a larger community and ecosystem, with support from major cloud providers and a wide range of third-party tools and services available.

In summary, Azure Service Fabric is a platform-as-a-service offering that abstracts away the underlying infrastructure and provides comprehensive application management features. Kubernetes, on the other hand, is an open-source container orchestration platform that offers more flexibility in terms of infrastructure setup and containerization. The choice between the two platforms depends on the specific requirements and preferences of the users.

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Advice on Kubernetes, Azure Service Fabric

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

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Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

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Detailed Comparison

Kubernetes	Azure Service Fabric
Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.	Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that makes it easy to package, deploy, and manage scalable and reliable microservices. Service Fabric addresses the significant challenges in developing and managing cloud apps.
Lightweight, simple and accessible;Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid;Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable	Simplify microservices development and application lifecycle management; Reliably scale and orchestrate containers and microservices; Data-aware platform for low-latency, high-throughput workloads with stateful containers or microservices; Run anything – your choice of languages and programming models; Run anywhere – supports Windows/Linux in Azure, on-premises, or other clouds; Scales up to thousands of machines
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 3.0K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 399
Stacks 61.2K	Stacks 103
Followers 52.8K	Followers 284
Votes 685	Votes 26
Pros & Cons
Pros 166 Leading docker container management solution 130 Simple and powerful 108 Open source 76 Backed by google 58 The right abstractions Cons 16 Steep learning curve 15 Poor workflow for development 8 Orchestrates only infrastructure 4 High resource requirements for on-prem clusters 2 Too heavy for simple systems	Pros 5 Intelligent, fast, reliable 4 Runs most of Azure core services 3 Superior programming models 3 More reliable than Kubernetes 3 Reliability
Integrations
Vagrant Docker Rackspace Cloud Servers Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Ansible Google Kubernetes Engine	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Kubernetes, Azure Service Fabric?

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Istio

Istio is an open platform for providing a uniform way to integrate microservices, manage traffic flow across microservices, enforce policies and aggregate telemetry data. Istio's control plane provides an abstraction layer over the underlying cluster management platform, such as Kubernetes, Mesos, etc.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.

Related Comparisons

Azure Service Fabric vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?

Infrastructure setup: Azure Service Fabric is a platform that abstracts away the underlying infrastructure, allowing developers to focus on building applications. On the other hand, Kubernetes is an open-source platform that can be deployed on any infrastructure, giving users more control over their infrastructure setup.
Deployment and scaling: Azure Service Fabric provides built-in support for microservices, making it easy to deploy and scale applications composed of multiple services. In contrast, Kubernetes focuses on managing containers and offers more flexibility in terms of containerization, allowing users to deploy and scale containerized applications.
Service discovery and load balancing: Azure Service Fabric includes built-in service discovery and load balancing features, making it easier for applications to discover and communicate with other services in the cluster. Kubernetes relies on external tools and services for service discovery and load balancing, offering more flexibility but requiring additional configuration and setup.
Monitoring and diagnostics: Azure Service Fabric provides built-in monitoring and diagnostics capabilities, allowing developers to easily monitor the health and performance of their applications. Kubernetes, on the other hand, requires the use of external monitoring and logging tools for monitoring and diagnostics, offering more flexibility but requiring additional setup and configuration.
Application lifecycle management: Azure Service Fabric provides comprehensive application lifecycle management capabilities, including rolling upgrades and versioning, making it easier to manage and upgrade applications. Kubernetes also supports rolling upgrades but does not provide built-in versioning and advanced application lifecycle management features.
Support and ecosystem: Azure Service Fabric is a Microsoft product and has strong integration with other Azure services, providing a consistent and unified experience for users. Kubernetes, being an open-source platform, has a larger community and ecosystem, with support from major cloud providers and a wide range of third-party tools and services available.

Azure Service Fabric vs Kubernetes

Overview