AWS Controllers for Kubernetes vs OpenStack Heat

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.

OpenStack Heat is a free, open-source orchestration service for composite applications in OpenStack. Declarative templates describe infrastructure and relationships in human-readable files that can be version-controlled. Heat can create instances, floating IPs, volumes, security groups, and users, while supporting instance high availability, autoscaling, and nested stacks. It runs HOT templates written in YAML and also accepts AWS CloudFormation templates. Templates can integrate with Puppet and Ansible, and operators can extend capabilities with plugins. The service exposes an OpenStack-native REST API and a CloudFormation-compatible Query API. Access is available through a command-line interface, RESTful queries, and the OpenStack dashboard. Heat runs on Linux as a self-hosted service and is provided under the Apache 2.0 license. Installation assumes an existing OpenStack environment with Compute, Image Service, and Identity, with guidance covering Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Ubuntu, and Debian.