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Apache Flink VS AWS Greengrass

Compare Apache Flink VS AWS Greengrass and see what are their differences

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Apache Flink logo Apache Flink

Flink is a streaming dataflow engine that provides data distribution, communication, and fault tolerance for distributed computations.

AWS Greengrass logo AWS Greengrass

Local compute, messaging, data caching, and synch capabilities for connected devices
  • Apache Flink Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03
  • AWS Greengrass Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-28

Apache Flink features and specs

  • Real-time Stream Processing
    Apache Flink is designed for real-time data streaming, offering low-latency processing capabilities that are essential for applications requiring immediate data insights.
  • Event Time Processing
    Flink supports event time processing, which allows it to handle out-of-order events effectively and provide accurate results based on the time events actually occurred rather than when they were processed.
  • State Management
    Flink provides robust state management features, making it easier to maintain and query state across distributed nodes, which is crucial for managing long-running applications.
  • Fault Tolerance
    The framework includes built-in mechanisms for fault tolerance, such as consistent checkpoints and savepoints, ensuring high reliability and data consistency even in the case of failures.
  • Scalability
    Apache Flink is highly scalable, capable of handling both batch and stream processing workloads across a distributed cluster, making it suitable for large-scale data processing tasks.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    Flink has a rich set of APIs and integrations with other big data tools, such as Apache Kafka, Apache Hadoop, and Apache Cassandra, enhancing its versatility and ease of integration into existing data pipelines.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Flink

  • Complexity
    Flink’s advanced features and capabilities come with a steep learning curve, making it more challenging to set up and use compared to simpler stream processing frameworks.
  • Resource Intensive
    The framework can be resource-intensive, requiring substantial memory and CPU resources for optimal performance, which might be a concern for smaller setups or cost-sensitive environments.
  • Community Support
    While growing, the community around Apache Flink is not as large or mature as some other big data frameworks like Apache Spark, potentially limiting the availability of community-contributed resources and support.
  • Ecosystem Maturity
    Despite its integrations, the Flink ecosystem is still maturing, and certain tools and plugins may not be as developed or stable as those available for more established frameworks.
  • Operational Overhead
    Running and maintaining a Flink cluster can involve significant operational overhead, including monitoring, scaling, and troubleshooting, which might require a dedicated team or additional expertise.

AWS Greengrass features and specs

  • Edge Computing
    AWS Greengrass allows devices to process data locally without relying on cloud resources, reducing latency and ensuring continued operation even with intermittent connectivity.
  • Seamless AWS Integration
    Seamlessly integrates with a variety of AWS services such as AWS Lambda, AWS IoT Core, and Amazon S3, allowing for enhanced functionality and simplified data exchange between edge devices and the cloud.
  • Security Features
    Offers robust security features, including data encryption for both in-transit and at-rest data, ensuring secure communication and data storage.
  • OTA Updates
    Provides over-the-air software updates, allowing developers to deploy new updates and patches to edge devices securely and efficiently.
  • Machine Learning at the Edge
    Supports ML inference capabilities, enabling machine learning models to run locally on devices, which is essential for real-time data processing and decision-making.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Greengrass

  • Complexity
    The integration of Greengrass in IoT solutions can add complexity, requiring a good understanding of both AWS services and edge computing.
  • Cost Considerations
    While processing data locally can reduce cloud costs, there may be additional expenses related to maintaining the hardware and ensuring compatibility with Greengrass, as well as costs associated with AWS usage.
  • Device Compatibility
    Not all devices may be compatible with AWS Greengrass, which may limit its use cases or require specific hardware configurations.
  • Dependency on AWS Ecosystem
    Being heavily integrated with the AWS ecosystem means that changes or outages in AWS services can potentially impact Greengrass deployments.
  • Learning Curve
    There may be a steep learning curve for developers who are new to AWS Greengrass, especially when it comes to deploying and managing complex IoT applications.

Analysis of Apache Flink

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Apache Flink is considered a good distributed stream processing framework.

Why this product is good

  • Rich api
    Flink offers a rich set of APIs for various levels of abstraction, catering to different needs of developers.
  • Scalability
    Flink provides excellent horizontal scalability, making it suitable for handling large data streams and high-throughput applications.
  • Fault tolerance
    Flink's checkpointing mechanism ensures fault-tolerance, maintaining data state consistency even after failures.
  • Ease of integration
    Flink integrates well with other big data tools and ecosystems, facilitating broader data architecture designs.
  • Real-time processing
    It excels at processing data in real-time, allowing for immediate insights and action on streaming data.
  • Community and support
    Being a part of the Apache Software Foundation, Flink benefits from a large community and comprehensive documentation.
  • Complex event processing
    It supports complex event processing, which is essential for many real-time applications.

Recommended for

  • real-time analytics
  • stream data processing
  • complex event processing
  • machine learning in streaming applications
  • applications requiring high-throughput and low-latency processing
  • companies looking for robust fault-tolerance in distributed systems

Apache Flink videos

GOTO 2019 • Introduction to Stateful Stream Processing with Apache Flink • Robert Metzger

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Apache Flink Tutorial | Flink vs Spark | Real Time Analytics Using Flink | Apache Flink Training
  • Tutorial - How to build a modern stream processor: The science behind Apache Flink - Stefan Richter

AWS Greengrass videos

Run ML Models at the Edge with AWS Greengrass ML

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Flink and AWS Greengrass)
Big Data
100 100%
0% 0
Data Dashboard
0 0%
100% 100
Stream Processing
100 100%
0% 0
IoT Platform
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Flink should be more popular than AWS Greengrass. It has been mentiond 41 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Flink mentions (41)

  • What is Apache Flink? Exploring Its Open Source Business Model, Funding, and Community
    Continuous Learning: Leverage online tutorials from the official Flink website and attend webinars for deeper insights. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Is RisingWave the Next Apache Flink?
    Apache Flink, known initially as Stratosphere, is a distributed stream processing engine initiated by a group of researchers at TU Berlin. Since its initial release in May 2011, Flink has gained immense popularity in both academia and industry. And it is currently the most well-known streaming system globally (challenge me if you think I got it wrong!). - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Every Database Will Support Iceberg — Here's Why
    Apache Iceberg defines a table format that separates how data is stored from how data is queried. Any engine that implements the Iceberg integration — Spark, Flink, Trino, DuckDB, Snowflake, RisingWave — can read and/or write Iceberg data directly. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • RisingWave Turns Four: Our Journey Beyond Democratizing Stream Processing
    The last decade saw the rise of open-source frameworks like Apache Flink, Spark Streaming, and Apache Samza. These offered more flexibility but still demanded significant engineering muscle to run effectively at scale. Companies using them often needed specialized stream processing engineers just to manage internal state, tune performance, and handle the day-to-day operational challenges. The barrier to entry... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Twitter's 600-Tweet Daily Limit Crisis: Soaring GCP Costs and the Open Source Fix Elon Musk Ignored
    Apache Flink: Flink is a unified streaming and batching platform developed under the Apache Foundation. It provides support for Java API and a SQL interface. Flink boasts a large ecosystem and can seamlessly integrate with various services, including Kafka, Pulsar, HDFS, Iceberg, Hudi, and other systems. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
View more

AWS Greengrass mentions (5)

  • Orchestrating Application Workloads in Distributed Embedded Systems: Setting up a Nomad Cluster with AWS IoT Greengrass - Part 1
    In this blog post series, we will demonstrate how to use AWS IoT Greengrass and Hashicorp Nomad to seamlessly interface with multiple interconnected devices and orchestrate service deployments on them. Greengrass will allow us to view the cluster as a single "Thing" from the cloud perspective, while Nomad will serve as the primary cluster orchestration tool. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • AWS Summit 2022 Australia and New Zealand - Day 2, AI/ML Edition
    AWS IoT Greengrass allows one to manage their IOT Edge devices, download ML models locally, so that inference can then be also be done locally. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • Applying DevOps Principles to Robotics
    To assist in deployment and management of workloads in your fleet, it's worth taking advantage of a fleet or device management tool such as AWS GreenGrass, Formant or Rocos. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Machine Learning Best Practices for Public Sector Organizations
    In some cases, such as with edge devices, inferencing needs to occur even when there is limited or no connectivity to the cloud. Mining fields are an example of this type of use case. AWS IoT Greengrass enables ML inference locally using models that are created, trained, and optimized in the cloud using Amazon SageMaker, AWS Deep Learning AMI, or AWS Deep Learning Containers, and deployed on the edge devices. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Looking for a good IoT overview + a simple tutorial
    Take a look at Greengrass https://aws.amazon.com/greengrass/ Enables OTA updates and fleet management. Source: about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Flink and AWS Greengrass, you can also consider the following products

Apache Spark - Apache Spark is an engine for big data processing, with built-in modules for streaming, SQL, machine learning and graph processing.

Particle.io - Particle is an IoT platform enabling businesses to build, connect and manage their connected solutions.

Spring Framework - The Spring Framework provides a comprehensive programming and configuration model for modern Java-based enterprise applications - on any kind of deployment platform.

AWS IoT - Easily and securely connect devices to the cloud.

Amazon Kinesis - Amazon Kinesis services make it easy to work with real-time streaming data in the AWS cloud.

Azure IoT Hub - Manage billions of IoT devices with Azure IoT Hub, a cloud platform that lets you easily connect, monitor, provision, and configure IoT devices.