Amazon Kinesis vs Amazon MSK comparison

Amazon Kinesis and Amazon MSK compete in the data streaming and processing category. Amazon Kinesis appears to hold the upper hand due to its simplicity and ease of integration with AWS services, though Amazon MSK offers more control for larger Apache Kafka workloads.

Features: Amazon Kinesis offers simplicity as a fully managed service with real-time data processing and robust AWS service integration. It handles real-time streaming data with low latency and provides seamless Lambda integration. Conversely, Amazon MSK is noted for its ability to manage larger Kafka workloads, offering more control over the Kafka environment. It excels in handling substantial data volumes efficiently and provides cost-effective solutions for intensive Kafka applications.

Room for Improvement: Amazon Kinesis users suggest improving default throughput limits and offering more intuitive sharding capabilities. Enhancements in visibility within data streams and better non-AWS service integration are also desirable. In contrast, Amazon MSK is criticized for its complex initial setup and higher costs for large-scale deployments. Enhancements in integration flexibility and schema support are needed, along with documentation improvements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon Kinesis allows swift deployment in public cloud environments, although technical support experiences vary. Amazon MSK supports both public and hybrid cloud configurations but may require more complex deployment steps. Despite this, MSK's support experiences are generally favorable with quick response times.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon Kinesis is seen as moderately priced, offering significant cost savings and positive ROI for integrated AWS use cases. Amazon MSK, while competitively priced for larger workloads, is noted for higher costs in smaller use cases. However, it can provide better long-term value for intensive workloads due to its resource optimization capabilities.