AWS Controllers for Kubernetes vs Cloudify

AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK) lets Kubernetes users define AWS resources with Kubernetes custom resources. It periodically compares desired and actual AWS state and corrects drift. Documentation lists 74 service controllers, including S3, RDS, Lambda and DynamoDB. ACK supports declarative, version-controlled infrastructure alongside applications, across AWS accounts and regions. Read-only resources and read-only adoption support migration from other infrastructure-as-code tools. EKS users can install managed EKS Capabilities, where AWS handles controller installation and upgrades with automatic updates, auto-scaling and auto-tuning. Self-managed Helm installation runs on EKS, GKE, AKS, on-premises clusters and local environments, providing version and configuration control. AWS IAM authorizes controller access. Self-managed ACK costs nothing for Helm installation on Kubernetes 1.20+ on any Kubernetes cluster. EKS Capability pricing is hourly, with a base rate per enabled capability plus usage charges for each ACK resource managed.

Cloudify is an open-source platform for orchestrating infrastructure, cloud-native services, and distributed edge resources across multiple clouds. Its service-composition DSL models services spanning Cloudify and other orchestration domains. Cloudify Manager stores blueprints and deployments, runs workflows, and displays application topology, metrics, and logs. Plugins cover Docker, Helm, Kubernetes, and Terraform; documented integrations include AWS, Azure, Ansible, and Jenkins. CI/CD integrations are documented for Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and CircleCI. Security features include secret storage, encrypted internal communication, multi-tenancy, and role-based access control. Cloudify 6.2 release notes state ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certification. Community and Premium can be deployed in Docker, a VM, or Kubernetes using a Helm chart; SaaS is hosted. Cloudify Community is free with no time limit, but requires Docker or a VM and cloud-provider access to run workloads. Premium has a free 60-day trial, requiring Docker, cloud access, and a valid activation license; trial functionality stops when the license expires.