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Apache Flink VS Google Cloud Dataproc

Compare Apache Flink VS Google Cloud Dataproc and see what are their differences

Apache Flink logo Apache Flink

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

Google Cloud Dataproc logo Google Cloud Dataproc

Managed Apache Spark and Apache Hadoop service which is fast, easy to use, and low cost
  • Apache Flink Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03
  • Google Cloud Dataproc Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-09

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.

Google Cloud Dataproc features and specs

  • Managed Service
    Google Cloud Dataproc is a fully managed service, which reduces the complexity of deploying, managing, and scaling big data clusters like Hadoop and Spark.
  • Integration with Google Cloud
    Seamlessly integrates with other Google Cloud services like Google Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and Google Cloud Pub/Sub, allowing for easy data handling and processing.
  • Scalability
    Can quickly scale resources up or down to meet the computing demands, making it flexible for different workload sizes and types.
  • Cost Efficiency
    Offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, and can utilize preemptible VMs for reduced costs, making it a cost-effective option for running big data workloads.
  • Customizability
    Supports custom image management and initialization actions, allowing users to tailor clusters to meet specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of Google Cloud Dataproc

  • Complex Pricing
    Understanding and predicting costs can be challenging due to various pricing factors like cluster size, usage duration, and types of instances used.
  • Learning Curve
    Dataproc requires familiarity with Google Cloud and big data tools, which may present a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Limited Customization Compared to Self-Managed
    While customizable, it may not offer as much flexibility and control as self-managed on-premises solutions, which can be limiting for highly specialized configurations.
  • Dependency on Google Cloud Ecosystem
    As a Google Cloud service, users are somewhat locked into the Google ecosystem, which may not be ideal for those using a multi-cloud strategy.
  • Potential Latency for Large Data Transfers
    Transferring large datasets between Dataproc and other services, especially across regions, might introduce latency issues.

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

Google Cloud Dataproc videos

Dataproc

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Flink and Google Cloud Dataproc)
Big Data
66 66%
34% 34
Data Dashboard
0 0%
100% 100
Stream Processing
100 100%
0% 0
Databases
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Flink seems to be a lot more popular than Google Cloud Dataproc. While we know about 42 links to Apache Flink, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Google Cloud Dataproc. 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 (42)

  • When plans change at 500 feet: Complex event processing of ADS-B aviation data with Apache Flink
    I wrote a python based aircraft monitor which polls the adsb.fi feed for aircraft transponder messages, and publishes each location update as a new event into an Apache Kafka topic. I used Apache Flink — and more specially Flink SQL, to transform and analyse my flight data. The TL;DR summary is I can write SQL for my real-time data processing queries — and get the scalability, fault tolerance, and low latency... - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • 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 â€” 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 / 2 months ago
View more

Google Cloud Dataproc mentions (3)

  • Connecting IPython notebook to spark master running in different machines
    I have also a spark cluster created with google cloud dataproc. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Why we don’t use Spark
    Specifically, we heavily rely on managed services from our cloud provider, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), for hosting our data in managed databases like BigTable and Spanner. For data transformations, we initially heavily relied on DataProc - a managed service from Google to manage a Spark cluster. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • Data processing issue
    With that, the best way to maximize processing and minimize time is to use Dataflow or Dataproc depending on your needs. These systems are highly parallel and clustered, which allows for much larger processing pipelines that execute quickly. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Flink and Google Cloud Dataproc, 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.

Amazon EMR - Amazon Elastic MapReduce is a web service that makes it easy to quickly process vast amounts of data.

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

Google BigQuery - A fully managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics.

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

HortonWorks Data Platform - The Hortonworks Data Platform is a 100% open source distribution of Apache Hadoop that is truly...