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Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) pros and cons

Vendor: Microsoft

4.1 out of 5

38 reviews
95% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) offers robust autoscaling and self-healing features, ensuring high availability and stability. Seamless integration with Azure Security, Active Directory, and Policies enhances security, while managed Kubernetes reduces control plane maintenance. Despite a complicated setup and delayed alerts, AKS excels in scalability and automation. Enhancements in data plane management, cost transparency, and infrastructure scanning efficiency can optimize resource usage and reduce management complexity for enterprise applications.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Azure Kubernetes Service offers seamless compliance through integration with Azure Security, Azure Active Directory, and Azure Policies.

It features valuable container orchestration tools, with autoscaling and self-healing as key features.

High availability and stability are emphasized, alongside excellent technical support that resolves issues promptly.

AKS provides robust CI/CD capabilities and integrates well with Azure's security features, making it an appealing choice for enterprise applications.

It supports budget-friendly scalability and automation, allowing efficient resource use for applications with variable requirements.

CONS

Azure may take up to 60 seconds to broadcast an alert when a microservice fails.

Technical support could be faster, and the setup of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) can be complicated and expensive.

The application firewall lacks features, and logs could be improved for better server health monitoring.

Pricing is considered high, which can be prohibitive for smaller organizations, and the cost could be more affordable.

There is room for improvement in integration functions, automation processes, and closer alignment with Kubernetes standards.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Pros review quotes

Chief Software Engineer at Totalsoft

May 19, 2023

The most valuable features of AKS are the full array of capabilities and robust security.

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RP

Rajanikanth Prathapa

Associate Principal - Cloud Solutions at Apexon

Nov 8, 2022

Compliance is easy right out-of-the-box with integration to Azure Security, Azure Active Directory, and Azure Policies.

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DL

Engineering Department Head at Bosch

May 25, 2023

The advantage of AKS is somewhat greater than that of Kubernetes, such as those provided by Google Cloud or AWS. However, the unique benefit offered by Microsoft is its robust CI/CD capabilities, along with the Azure feature for building workflows. When you combine the entire ecosystem, AKS becomes an excellent choice, particularly for enterprise applications.

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Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

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Project Manager at Softway

Feb 13, 2023

I found the Helm deployment feature of the solution valuable.

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reviewer1911309

Director, Digital Strategy and Architecture at Cognizant

Jul 14, 2023

Azure Kubernetes Service is pretty robust in terms of scalability and auto-scaling fixes.

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MR

Principal Data Engineer at Turing

Oct 2, 2023

AKS as a service is very good when you need to leverage applications or functions with much variability in their usage because you're trying to be as efficient as you can with resources.

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reviewer1220712

Principal Cloud Architect at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 12, 2024

I don't have to furnish my own infrastructure in order to run containers or Kubernetes.

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Solution Sales Architect at Softline

May 27, 2024

Containerization of the applications is the most valuable feature.

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Sr Tech Delivery Manager at Tech Mahindra Limited

Feb 7, 2024

The product serves the purpose of helping streamline our company's application deployment and scaling processes.

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RS

Senior technical project manager at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Jun 3, 2024

The Front Door and Service Bus are the most vital features

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Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Cons review quotes

Chief Software Engineer at Totalsoft

May 19, 2023

AKS has the potential to enhance pricing by enabling us to explore ways to increase cost transparency. However, it's important to note that this refers to computation costs rather than client costs. Our objective is to optimize efficiency and minimize unnecessary expenses. Therefore, we aim to identify which services within the platform can benefit from improved consumption patterns. This is the focus of our ongoing research, with the goal of maximizing computational power within the cluster. We aim to avoid situations where resources are reserved but not utilized effectively. Additionally, our strong emphasis on security ensures that we adhere to all relevant compliance standards, bolstering our overall trustworthiness.

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RP

Rajanikanth Prathapa

Associate Principal - Cloud Solutions at Apexon

Nov 8, 2022

Unfortunately, when a microservice fails, Azure can take up to 60 seconds to broadcast an alert to the monitoring agents.

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DL

Engineering Department Head at Bosch

May 25, 2023

AKS could enhance its functionality by introducing a blueprint feature that streamlines and expedites the process. With a blueprint, users can leverage pre-defined configurations, including some common survey elements, reducing the need for extensive customization and allowing us to focus on our core business activities. Additionally, if the blueprint covers security aspects, it would be greatly beneficial, as it eliminates the need for us to build security expertise from scratch. Currently, we encounter challenges during cloud onboarding, security implementation, and adapting to Kubernetes. Although Microsoft may not consider these as their direct responsibility, providing a blueprint similar to what they offer to developers would be highly advantageous.

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Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Free Report: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.

831,997 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Project Manager at Softway

Feb 13, 2023

The initial setup of AKS is complicated. The setup depends on the cluster, nodes, and lots of other things. There are also lots of extremely critical small devices. Moreover, you will have to pay them even while setting up the solution. It is not like you setup first and then pay for it.

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reviewer1911309

Director, Digital Strategy and Architecture at Cognizant

Jul 14, 2023

One area that could be improved is the Azure CLI. It would be beneficial if they could abstract some of the complexities related to deployment scripts and make them a part of Azure CLI.

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MR

Principal Data Engineer at Turing

Oct 2, 2023

It just loses out because you have less access to it programmatically, with less technical or customizable access.

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reviewer1220712

Principal Cloud Architect at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 12, 2024

The setup process could be more user-friendly, and additional documentation would be beneficial.

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Solution Sales Architect at Softline

May 27, 2024

If any customer uses a traditional code, the code-level changes take a lot of time.

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Sr Tech Delivery Manager at Tech Mahindra Limited

Feb 7, 2024

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is not up to optimal standards when it comes to capturing logs and visualization.

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RS

Senior technical project manager at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Jun 3, 2024

The cost of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is extremely high

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 37)

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Product Categories

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Product Categories

Product Categories

Container Security

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Wiz vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Qualys VMDR vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Orca Security vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Tenable.io Container Security vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Chainguard Images vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

SUSE Rancher vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

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