AWS Systems Manager State Manager vs Canonical Landscape

AWS Systems Manager State Manager automates keeping managed nodes and other AWS resources in a state that customers define. Its associations specify the configuration to maintain, when to apply it and which resources to target. Targets can be selected by tags, AWS Resource Groups, individual node IDs or all managed nodes in the current Region and account. Associations can run immediately or later and accept most standard cron and rate expressions, but association cron expressions cannot specify months. On Linux, macOS and Windows Server managed nodes, State Manager can bootstrap software, schedule agent updates, configure network settings, join nodes to a Microsoft Active Directory domain and run scripts. Association run output can be stored in Amazon S3, and State Manager is supported as an event type and target type in Amazon EventBridge rules. It has no additional charge, although limits may apply. State Manager runs as a cloud service with an agent-based model. AWS Systems Manager follows a shared responsibility model: AWS protects cloud infrastructure, while customer responsibilities depend on the service, data and requirements. Third-party auditors assess Systems Manager under assurance programs including SOC, PCI, FedRAMP and HIPAA.

Canonical Landscape manages Ubuntu desktops, servers, cloud instances, IoT devices, and other Ubuntu systems from a central portal. Administrators can handle updates, packages and repositories, run scripts remotely, set role-based access, and monitor machines. It can alert on updates and graph temperature, disk and memory use, system load, and custom metrics. One instance can manage up to 40,000 machines, with options to scale further. Deployment choices are Canonical-hosted SaaS, Managed Landscape, and self-hosted software; SaaS is bundled with Ubuntu Pro. A free SaaS account with Ubuntu Pro covers up to five machines. Managed Landscape costs $6,861 a year per physical machine on public clouds, VMware, OpenStack, or LXD, or $9,470 a year per physical machine on bare metal. No self-hosted price is listed; Ubuntu Pro is its main licensing mechanism. Landscape has a scriptable API and can integrate with configuration management, monitoring, and ticketing systems. Self-hosting requires the organization to install, host, and maintain it. SaaS does not currently offer repository mirroring or custom external identity-provider configuration.