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Amazon MSK vs Azure Stream Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon MSK
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
6th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Azure Stream Analytics
Ranking in Streaming Analytics
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Streaming Analytics category, the mindshare of Amazon MSK is 8.2%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Stream Analytics is 11.4%, down from 12.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Streaming Analytics
 

Featured Reviews

FNU AKSHANSH - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlines our processes, and we don't need to configure any VPCs; it's automatic
We don't have many use cases involving ingesting large amounts of data and scaling up and down. We have a clear understanding of our data volume, which remains relatively constant throughout the week. While we're aware of other features Amazon MSK offers, we feel confident in our current setup. If our requirements change significantly in the future, we'll reassess our needs and consider adopting Amazon MSK.
SantiagoCordero - PeerSpot reviewer
Native connectors and integration simplify tasks but portfolio complexity needs addressing
There are too many products in the Azure landscape, which sometimes leads to overlap between them. Microsoft continuously releases new products or solutions, which can be frustrating when determining the appropriate features from one solution over another. A cost comparison between products is also not straightforward. They should simplify their portfolio. The Microsoft licensing system is confusing and not easy to understand, and this is something they should address. In the future, I may stop using Stream Analytics and move to other solutions. I discussed Palantir earlier, which is something I want to explore in depth because it allows me to accomplish more efficiently compared to solely using Azure. Additionally, the vendors should make the solution more user-friendly, incorporating low-code and no-code features. This is something I wish to explore further.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Amazon MSK is the integration."
"Overall, it is very cost-effective based on the workflow."
"Amazon MSK has significantly improved our organization by building seamless integration between systems."
"It offers good stability."
"It is a stable product."
"The solution's technical support was helpful."
"MSK has a private network that's an out-of-box feature."
"Amazon MSK's scalability is very good."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its ability to create a query using SQ."
"Provides deep integration with other Azure resources."
"We use Azure Stream Analytics for simulation and internal activities."
"The most valuable features are the IoT hub and the Blob storage."
"It's easy to implement and maintain pipelines with minimal complexity."
"I like the IoT part. We have mostly used Azure Stream Analytics services for it"
"The life cycle, report management and crash management features are great."
"I appreciate this solution because it leverages open-source technologies. It allows us to utilize the latest streaming solutions and it's easy to develop."
 

Cons

"In my opinion, there are areas in Amazon MSK that could be improved, particularly in terms of configuration. Initially setting it up and getting it connected was quite challenging. The naming conventions for policies were updated by AWS, and some were undocumented, leading to confusion with outdated materials. It took us weeks of trial and error before discovering new methods through hidden tutorials and official documentation."
"It should be more flexible, integration-wise."
"One of the reasons why we prefer Kafka is because the support is a little bit difficult to manage with Amazon MSK."
"It does not autoscale. Because if you do keep it manually when you add a note to the cluster and then you register it, then it is scalable, but the fact that you have to go and do it, I think, makes it, again, a bit of some operational overhead when managing the cluster."
"Horizontal scale-out is actually not easy, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Amazon MSK could improve on the features they offer. They are still lagging behind Confluence."
"The configuration seems a little complex and the documentation on the product is not available."
"The product's schema support needs enhancement. It will help enhance integration with many kinds of languages of programming languages, especially for environments using languages like .NET."
"I would like to have a contact individual at Microsoft."
"We would like to have centralized platform altogether since we have different kind of options for data ingestion. Sometimes it gets difficult to manage different platforms."
"Easier scalability and more detailed job monitoring features would be helpful."
"The UI should be a little bit better from a usability perspective."
"There are too many products in the Azure landscape, which sometimes leads to overlap between them."
"The solution doesn't handle large data packets very efficiently, which could be improved upon."
"More flexibility in terms of writing queries and accommodating additional facilities would be beneficial."
"The solution’s customer support could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The platform has better pricing than one of its competitors."
"The price of Amazon MSK is less than some competitor solutions, such as Confluence."
"When you create a complete enterprise-driven architecture that is deployable on an enterprise scale, I would say that the prices of Amazon MSK and Confluent Platform become comparable."
"The licensing for this product is payable on a 'pay as you go' basis. This means that the cost is only based on data volume, and the frequency that the solution is used."
"The cost of this solution is less than competitors such as Amazon or Google Cloud."
"The product's price is at par with the other solutions provided by the other cloud service providers in the market."
"When scaling up, the pricing for Azure Stream Analytics can get relatively high. Considering its capabilities compared to other solutions, I would rate it a seven out of ten for cost. However, we've found ways to optimize costs using tools like Databricks for specific tasks."
"We pay approximately $500,000 a year. It's approximately $10,000 a year per license."
"The current price is substantial."
"Azure Stream Analytics is a little bit expensive."
"I rate the price of Azure Stream Analytics a four out of five."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon MSK?
Amazon MSK has significantly improved our organization by building seamless integration between systems.
What needs improvement with Amazon MSK?
From AWS, I would consider more MSK schema validation is needed. It is easy to integrate if you have an application, but on-topic integration is more complex. You can do it with EvenBridge very eas...
What is your primary use case for Amazon MSK?
I have used Confluent Cloud and Amazon MSK in my company. We are not using it for analytics and it is more for CDC processes, so we change the capture processes. It is used to extract data from a d...
Which would you choose - Databricks or Azure Stream Analytics?
Databricks is an easy-to-set-up and versatile tool for data management, analysis, and business analytics. For analytics teams that have to interpret data to further the business goals of their orga...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stream Analytics?
When I purchased the product, it was comparable to other Azure products. From my point of view, it should be cheaper now, considering the years since its release. The Azure solution is better now, ...
What needs improvement with Azure Stream Analytics?
There are too many products in the Azure landscape, which sometimes leads to overlap between them. Microsoft continuously releases new products or solutions, which can be frustrating when determini...
 

Also Known As

Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka
ASA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Rockwell Automation, Milliman, Honeywell Building Solutions, Arcoflex Automation Solutions, Real Madrid C.F., Aerocrine, Ziosk, Tacoma Public Schools, P97 Networks
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon MSK vs. Azure Stream Analytics and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.