15.4 B.1 Comprehensive platforms (managed Kafka)
"This includes managed deployments of ALL components, such that you can focus on USING Kafka and not on HOW TO RUN IT. This can present an ideal solution for use cases where resources are not available (or you do not want to dedicate them) for learning how to properly operate Kafka and the infrastructure required around it. Several also provide tools, such as schema management, REST interfaces, and in some cases client library support, so that you can be assured components interoperate correctly."
| Platform | Clouds | Schema registry | REST proxy | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confluent Cloud | AWS, Azure, GCP | ✅ | ✅ | "the company created by some of the original developers"; "combines a number of MUST-HAVE tools — including schema management, clients, a RESTful interface, and monitoring — into a single offering"; "backed with support provided by a sizable portion of the core Apache Kafka contributors employed by Confluent". ⚠️ Many components "are available as standalone tools under the Confluent Community License, WHICH DOES RESTRICT SOME USE CASES" |
| Aiven | AWS, Azure, GCP, DigitalOcean, UpCloud | ✅ Karapace | ✅ Karapace | Karapace is "API-compatible with Confluent's components but supported under the Apache 2.0 license, WHICH DOES NOT RESTRICT USE CASES" |
| CloudKarafka | AWS, GCP | ⚠️ Confluent's, v5.0 only | ⚠️ same | "focuses on providing a managed Kafka solution with integrations for popular infrastructure services (such as DataDog or Splunk)"; supports Confluent's components "but ONLY THE 5.0 VERSION PRIOR TO THE LICENSE CHANGES" |
| Amazon MSK | AWS only | ✅ via AWS Glue | ❌ "not directly supported" | "Amazon promotes the use of community tools (such as Cruise Control, Burrow, and Confluent's REST proxy) BUT DOES NOT DIRECTLY SUPPORT THEM. As such, MSK is somewhat LESS INTEGRATED than other offers, but can still provide a core Kafka cluster." |
| Azure HDInsight | Azure | ❌ user-provided | ❌ user-provided | "also supports Hadoop, Spark, and other big data components"; "focuses on the core Kafka cluster, leaving many of the other components... up to the user to provide. Some third parties have provided templates... but they are NOT SUPPORTED by Microsoft." |
| Cloudera | public cloud and private | (part of CDP) | (part of CDP) | "a fixture in the Kafka community since the early days"; Kafka as "the stream data component of its overall Customer Data Platform (CDP)"; "operates in the public cloud environments AS WELL AS providing PRIVATE options." |
| License | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Confluent Community License | restricts some use cases |
| Apache 2.0 — Karapace, Strimzi Bridge | no use restrictions |
CloudKarafka pins to Confluent 5.0 — i.e. pre-license-change.
► Ch. 1 flagged this: Confluent's ksqlDB / Schema Registry / REST proxy are “not strictly open source, as it includes use restrictions.” If you're building a product on top, this axis matters more than features.