Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

IBM Cloud Object Storage VS Apache Flink

Compare IBM Cloud Object Storage VS Apache Flink and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

IBM Cloud Object Storage logo IBM Cloud Object Storage

IBM Cloud Object Storage is a platform that offers cost-effective and scalable cloud storage for unstructured data.

Apache Flink logo Apache Flink

Flink is a streaming dataflow engine that provides data distribution, communication, and fault tolerance for distributed computations.
  • IBM Cloud Object Storage Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-18
  • Apache Flink Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03

IBM Cloud Object Storage features and specs

  • Scalability
    IBM Cloud Object Storage offers very high scalability, allowing businesses to store large amounts of data easily. This flexibility is crucial for businesses that are growing their storage needs or have fluctuating demands.
  • Data Resiliency
    The service provides robust data resiliency options, including geo-dispersed storage configurations, enabling enhanced protection against data loss and improved availability.
  • Cost Efficiency
    With its flexible pricing model, businesses can choose options that best fit their budget, such as 'Pay-as-you-go' plans, thereby optimizing costs according to actual usage.
  • Security Features
    It comes with comprehensive security features, including encryption, access control, and integration with IAM policies, ensuring that data is protected both at rest and in transit.
  • Integration
    Seamless integration with the broader IBM Cloud ecosystem, as well as other cloud services and applications, allows businesses to easily incorporate this storage solution into their existing cloud strategy.

Possible disadvantages of IBM Cloud Object Storage

  • Complexity
    The extensive feature set and customization options might lead to a steeper learning curve for new users or smaller teams without dedicated IT resources.
  • Performance Variability
    Depending on the region and specific use case, users might encounter variability in performance, particularly in scenarios requiring low-latency or high-throughput data access.
  • Support Availability
    While IBM offers various support plans, certain users might find the support mechanisms, such as community forums and basic plans, less responsive compared to some other providers.
  • Pricing Complexity
    Although pricing models are flexible, they can also become complex and convoluted, making it difficult for some businesses to predict costs precisely without detailed monitoring and analysis.
  • Limited Proprietary Tooling
    Compared to some competitors, IBM might have fewer proprietary tools and native applications directly integrated with their cloud storage, potentially requiring additional third-party tools or custom development for specific needs.

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.

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

IBM Cloud Object Storage videos

IBM Cloud Object Storage: Built for business

More videos:

  • Review - Getting Started with IBM Cloud Object Storage
  • Review - IBM Cloud Object Storage webinar

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to IBM Cloud Object Storage and Apache Flink)
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Big Data
0 0%
100% 100
Cloud Storage
100 100%
0% 0
Stream Processing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using IBM Cloud Object Storage and Apache Flink. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Flink seems to be more popular. 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.

IBM Cloud Object Storage mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of IBM Cloud Object Storage yet. Tracking of IBM Cloud Object Storage recommendations started around Mar 2021.

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 1 month 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

What are some alternatives?

When comparing IBM Cloud Object Storage and Apache Flink, you can also consider the following products

Alibaba Object Storage Service - Alibaba Object Storage Service is an encrypted and secure cloud storage service which stores, processes and accesses massive amounts of data

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

Contabo Object Storage - S3-compatible cloud object storage with unlimited, free transfer at a fraction of what others charge. Easy migration & predictable billing. Sign up now & save.

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

Wasabi Cloud Object Storage - Storage made simple. Faster than Amazon's S3. Less expensive than Glacier.

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