Amazon Kinesis vs Amazon MSK (Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka)
| Feature | Amazon Kinesis | Amazon MSK (Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka) |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Fully managed real-time data streaming platform by AWS. | Fully managed service for running Apache Kafka (open-source distributed messaging system). |
| Primary Use Case | Real-time streaming and analytics for applications. | Message queueing, pub/sub messaging, and distributed event streaming. |
| Supported APIs | AWS Kinesis API. | Apache Kafka API (e.g., Kafka Producer/Consumer API, Streams API). |
| Ease of Setup | Very easy, serverless, no infrastructure to manage. | Requires some knowledge of Kafka, including topic configurations and cluster setup. |
| Scalability | Automatically scales (serverless model). | Manually scales via broker instances and partitions. |
| Latency | Low latency for real-time processing. | Low latency for event streaming, but dependent on cluster configuration. |
| Data Retention | Default: 24 hours, extendable to 7 days (or longer). | Customizable retention policies per topic, often up to weeks/months. |
| Integration | Deep integration with AWS services like Lambda, S3, Redshift, and Elasticsearch. | Integrates with Kafka-compatible tools and AWS services (e.g., Lambda, MSK Connect). |
| Message Ordering | Ensures ordering per shard. | Ensures ordering per partition. |
| Replication | Native data replication across availability zones (highly available). | Kafka’s replication mechanism (configurable replication factor). |
| Management | Fully serverless and managed by AWS. | Fully managed Kafka, but still requires some operational knowledge. |
| Cost Model | Pay-per-use based on shards and data throughput (DPU). | Pay for EC2 instances (brokers), storage, and networking. |
| Key Strengths | – Simplified, serverless real-time streaming. – Seamless AWS integration. | – Apache Kafka compatibility. – Customizable for specific use cases. |
| Key Weaknesses | – No compatibility with Kafka ecosystem. – Limited message size (1 MB). | – More complex to manage compared to Kinesis. |
