Dapr vs Kubernetes

Overview

Kubernetes

Stacks61.2K

Followers52.8K

Votes685

Dapr

Stacks96

Followers336

Votes9

GitHub Stars25.2K

Forks2.0K

Dapr vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?

Introduction

Dapr and Kubernetes are both open-source technologies that are widely used in modern cloud-native application development. While they share some similarities, there are several key differences between these two platforms. In this article, we will explore the key differences between Dapr and Kubernetes and highlight the advantages and use cases of each technology.

Orchestration vs. Runtime: One of the key differences between Dapr and Kubernetes is their primary focus. Kubernetes is primarily an orchestration platform that manages the deployment and scaling of containerized applications. It provides features like service discovery, load balancing, and automatic scaling. On the other hand, Dapr is a runtime framework that provides a set of building blocks and services for developing and running distributed applications. Dapr can be used alongside Kubernetes or any other orchestrator to add functionality such as state management, pub/sub messaging, and event-driven programming.
Granularity of Abstraction: Another important difference between Dapr and Kubernetes is the granularity of abstraction they provide. Kubernetes operates at the infrastructure level, managing containers and pods, while Dapr operates at the application level, providing a higher-level abstraction for developers. Dapr abstracts away the complexities of distributed systems, allowing developers to focus on writing business logic and microservices without having to deal with infrastructure concerns.
Polyglot Support: Dapr supports multiple programming languages and frameworks, whereas Kubernetes is primarily focused on orchestrating containerized applications. Dapr provides SDKs and language-specific frameworks for popular languages like .NET, Java, Python, and Go, allowing developers to write microservices in their preferred language. Kubernetes, on the other hand, supports any containerized application, regardless of the programming language used.
State Management: Dapr provides a built-in state management feature that allows applications to store and retrieve state in a distributed and scalable manner. It supports various state stores such as Redis, Azure Cosmos DB, and Apache Cassandra. Kubernetes, on the other hand, does not provide built-in state management capabilities, and applications typically have to rely on external databases or storage systems to manage state.
Event-driven Programming: Dapr provides a robust event-driven programming model, enabling applications to react to events and messages asynchronously. It supports popular messaging systems like RabbitMQ, Kafka, and Azure Service Bus, and allows developers to easily build event-driven architectures. Kubernetes does not provide native support for event-driven programming, although it can integrate with messaging systems through custom configurations.
Service Mesh Integration: Dapr can be seamlessly integrated with popular service mesh frameworks like Istio and Linkerd. Service meshes provide advanced networking features like traffic management, observability, and security for microservices architectures. Kubernetes itself does not include a service mesh, but it can be used as an orchestrator for deploying and managing service mesh frameworks alongside Dapr.

In summary, Dapr and Kubernetes have different focuses and provide complementary capabilities for building modern distributed applications. Kubernetes excels at container orchestration and infrastructure management, while Dapr provides a developer-friendly runtime for building microservices and adds functionality like state management and event-driven programming. Both technologies can be used together to create scalable and resilient cloud-native applications.

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Advice on Kubernetes, Dapr

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

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.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Kubernetes	Dapr
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.	It is a portable, event-driven runtime that makes it easy for developers to build resilient, stateless and stateful microservices that run on the cloud and edge and embraces the diversity of languages and developer frameworks.
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	Event-driven Pub-Sub system with pluggable providers and at-least-once semantics; Input and Output bindings with pluggable providers; State management with pluggable data stores; Consistent service-to-service discovery and invocation; Opt-in stateful models: Strong/Eventual consistency, First-write/Last-write wins; Cross platform Virtual Actors; Rate limiting; Built-in distributed tracing using Open Telemetry; Runs natively on Kubernetes using a dedicated Operator and CRDs; Supports all programming languages via HTTP and gRPC; Multi-Cloud, open components (bindings, pub-sub, state) from Azure, AWS, GCP; Runs anywhere - as a process or containerized; Lightweight (58MB binary, 4MB physical memory); Runs as a sidecar - removes the need for special SDKs or libraries; Dedicated CLI - developer friendly experience with easy debugging; Clients for Java, Dotnet, Go, Javascript and Python
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 25.2K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 2.0K
Stacks 61.2K	Stacks 96
Followers 52.8K	Followers 336
Votes 685	Votes 9
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 3 Manage inter-service state 2 MTLS "for free" 2 Zipkin app tracing "for free" 2 App dashboard for rapid log overview Cons 1 Additional overhead
Integrations
Vagrant Docker Rackspace Cloud Servers Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Ansible Google Kubernetes Engine	.NET Core Java Python Microsoft Azure JavaScript Google Cloud Platform Golang

What are some alternatives to Kubernetes, Dapr?

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.

Azure Service Fabric

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.

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.

Related Comparisons

Stacks61.2K

Followers52.8K

Votes685

Dapr

Stacks96

Followers336

Votes9

GitHub Stars25.2K

Forks2.0K

Dapr vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?

Introduction

Orchestration vs. Runtime: One of the key differences between Dapr and Kubernetes is their primary focus. Kubernetes is primarily an orchestration platform that manages the deployment and scaling of containerized applications. It provides features like service discovery, load balancing, and automatic scaling. On the other hand, Dapr is a runtime framework that provides a set of building blocks and services for developing and running distributed applications. Dapr can be used alongside Kubernetes or any other orchestrator to add functionality such as state management, pub/sub messaging, and event-driven programming.
Granularity of Abstraction: Another important difference between Dapr and Kubernetes is the granularity of abstraction they provide. Kubernetes operates at the infrastructure level, managing containers and pods, while Dapr operates at the application level, providing a higher-level abstraction for developers. Dapr abstracts away the complexities of distributed systems, allowing developers to focus on writing business logic and microservices without having to deal with infrastructure concerns.
Polyglot Support: Dapr supports multiple programming languages and frameworks, whereas Kubernetes is primarily focused on orchestrating containerized applications. Dapr provides SDKs and language-specific frameworks for popular languages like .NET, Java, Python, and Go, allowing developers to write microservices in their preferred language. Kubernetes, on the other hand, supports any containerized application, regardless of the programming language used.
State Management: Dapr provides a built-in state management feature that allows applications to store and retrieve state in a distributed and scalable manner. It supports various state stores such as Redis, Azure Cosmos DB, and Apache Cassandra. Kubernetes, on the other hand, does not provide built-in state management capabilities, and applications typically have to rely on external databases or storage systems to manage state.
Event-driven Programming: Dapr provides a robust event-driven programming model, enabling applications to react to events and messages asynchronously. It supports popular messaging systems like RabbitMQ, Kafka, and Azure Service Bus, and allows developers to easily build event-driven architectures. Kubernetes does not provide native support for event-driven programming, although it can integrate with messaging systems through custom configurations.
Service Mesh Integration: Dapr can be seamlessly integrated with popular service mesh frameworks like Istio and Linkerd. Service meshes provide advanced networking features like traffic management, observability, and security for microservices architectures. Kubernetes itself does not include a service mesh, but it can be used as an orchestrator for deploying and managing service mesh frameworks alongside Dapr.

Advice on Kubernetes, Dapr

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

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.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Kubernetes	Dapr
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.	It is a portable, event-driven runtime that makes it easy for developers to build resilient, stateless and stateful microservices that run on the cloud and edge and embraces the diversity of languages and developer frameworks.
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	Event-driven Pub-Sub system with pluggable providers and at-least-once semantics; Input and Output bindings with pluggable providers; State management with pluggable data stores; Consistent service-to-service discovery and invocation; Opt-in stateful models: Strong/Eventual consistency, First-write/Last-write wins; Cross platform Virtual Actors; Rate limiting; Built-in distributed tracing using Open Telemetry; Runs natively on Kubernetes using a dedicated Operator and CRDs; Supports all programming languages via HTTP and gRPC; Multi-Cloud, open components (bindings, pub-sub, state) from Azure, AWS, GCP; Runs anywhere - as a process or containerized; Lightweight (58MB binary, 4MB physical memory); Runs as a sidecar - removes the need for special SDKs or libraries; Dedicated CLI - developer friendly experience with easy debugging; Clients for Java, Dotnet, Go, Javascript and Python
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 25.2K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 2.0K
Stacks 61.2K	Stacks 96
Followers 52.8K	Followers 336
Votes 685	Votes 9
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 3 Manage inter-service state 2 MTLS "for free" 2 Zipkin app tracing "for free" 2 App dashboard for rapid log overview Cons 1 Additional overhead
Integrations
Vagrant Docker Rackspace Cloud Servers Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Ansible Google Kubernetes Engine	.NET Core Java Python Microsoft Azure JavaScript Google Cloud Platform Golang

Dapr vs Kubernetes

Overview

Dapr vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?