Azure Service Fabric vs Docker

Overview

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

Azure Service Fabric

Stacks103

Followers284

Votes26

GitHub Stars3.0K

Forks399

Azure Service Fabric vs Docker: What are the differences?

Azure Service Fabric and Docker are both popular technologies used for deploying and managing distributed applications. Although they have similar functionalities, there are several key differences between them that set them apart.

Scalability and Orchestration: Azure Service Fabric is designed to provide a highly scalable and orchestrated environment for deploying and managing microservices-based applications. It provides built-in support for automatic scaling, load balancing, and fault tolerance. On the other hand, Docker is primarily focused on containerization and provides a platform-agnostic way to package and distribute applications. While Docker Swarm provides some orchestration capabilities, it does not have the same level of scalability and built-in features as Azure Service Fabric.
Application Lifecycle Management: Azure Service Fabric offers a complete end-to-end application lifecycle management solution. It provides tools for deploying, upgrading, and monitoring applications throughout their lifecycle. It also supports rolling upgrades, allowing applications to be updated without downtime. Docker, on the other hand, focuses on packaging and distribution of applications. While Docker provides tools for managing containers, it does not have the same level of built-in support for application lifecycle management as Azure Service Fabric.
Service Discovery and Communication: Azure Service Fabric provides built-in service discovery and communication mechanisms. It supports service naming and resolution, allowing services to discover and communicate with each other. It also provides reliable messaging and communication libraries. Docker, on the other hand, does not have the same level of built-in service discovery and communication capabilities. It relies on external tools and frameworks for these functionalities.
Supported Platforms: Azure Service Fabric is a Microsoft technology and is tightly integrated with the Azure ecosystem. It can run on both on-premises infrastructure and in the Azure cloud. Docker, on the other hand, is platform-agnostic and can run on any infrastructure that supports containerization. It can be used with different cloud providers, virtual machines, or even bare-metal servers.
Ecosystem and Community Support: Azure Service Fabric, being a Microsoft technology, has a strong ecosystem and community support. It has a wide range of documentation, tutorials, and community forums for developers to learn and get help. Docker, on the other hand, has a larger ecosystem and community support due to its broader adoption. It has a vast collection of pre-built images and a large community that contributes to its development and support.
Deployment Complexity: Azure Service Fabric, being a comprehensive platform, can have a higher deployment complexity compared to Docker. It requires setting up and managing the Service Fabric cluster and understanding its architecture. Docker, on the other hand, provides a simpler deployment model with containers. It allows for easier packaging and deployment of applications without the need for managing the underlying infrastructure.

In summary, Azure Service Fabric is a highly scalable and orchestrated platform with comprehensive application lifecycle management features, built-in service discovery and communication mechanisms, and strong integration with the Azure ecosystem. Docker, on the other hand, focuses on containerization and provides a platform-agnostic way to package and distribute applications with a larger ecosystem and community support. While Azure Service Fabric offers more advanced features and tighter integration with the Azure ecosystem, Docker provides a simpler deployment model and can be used with any infrastructure that supports containerization.

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Advice on Docker, Azure Service Fabric

Florian

IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH

Oct 22, 2019

Decided

lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker	Azure Service Fabric
The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere	Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that makes it easy to package, deploy, and manage scalable and reliable microservices. Service Fabric addresses the significant challenges in developing and managing cloud apps.
Integrated developer tools; open, portable images; shareable, reusable apps; framework-aware builds; standardized templates; multi-environment support; remote registry management; simple setup for Docker and Kubernetes; certified Kubernetes; application templates; enterprise controls; secure software supply chain; industry-leading container runtime; image scanning; access controls; image signing; caching and mirroring; image lifecycle; policy-based image promotion	Simplify microservices development and application lifecycle management; Reliably scale and orchestrate containers and microservices; Data-aware platform for low-latency, high-throughput workloads with stateful containers or microservices; Run anything – your choice of languages and programming models; Run anywhere – supports Windows/Linux in Azure, on-premises, or other clouds; Scales up to thousands of machines
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 3.0K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 399
Stacks 194.2K	Stacks 103
Followers 143.8K	Followers 284
Votes 3.9K	Votes 26
Pros & Cons
Pros 823 Rapid integration and build up 692 Isolation 521 Open source 505 Testability and reproducibility 460 Lightweight Cons 8 New versions == broken features 6 Documentation not always in sync 6 Unreliable networking 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure	Pros 5 Intelligent, fast, reliable 4 Runs most of Azure core services 3 Open source 3 Reliability 3 Superior programming models
Integrations
Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Docker, Azure Service Fabric?

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

Istio

Istio is an open platform for providing a uniform way to integrate microservices, manage traffic flow across microservices, enforce policies and aggregate telemetry data. Istio's control plane provides an abstraction layer over the underlying cluster management platform, such as Kubernetes, Mesos, etc.

LXC

LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

Moleculer

It is a fault tolerant framework. It has built-in load balancer, circuit breaker, retries, timeout and bulkhead features. It is open source and free of charge project.

Express Gateway

A cloud-native microservices gateway completely configurable and extensible through JavaScript/Node.js built for ALL platforms and languages. Enterprise features are FREE thanks to the power of 3K+ ExpressJS battle hardened modules.

rkt

Rocket is a cli for running App Containers. The goal of rocket is to be composable, secure, and fast.

ArangoDB Foxx

It is a JavaScript framework for writing data-centric HTTP microservices that run directly inside of ArangoDB.

Dapr

It is a portable, event-driven runtime that makes it easy for developers to build resilient, stateless and stateful microservices that run on the cloud and edge and embraces the diversity of languages and developer frameworks.

Zuul

It is the front door for all requests from devices and websites to the backend of the Netflix streaming application. As an edge service application, It is built to enable dynamic routing, monitoring, resiliency, and security. Routing is an integral part of a microservice architecture.

linkerd

linkerd is an out-of-process network stack for microservices. It functions as a transparent RPC proxy, handling everything needed to make inter-service RPC safe and sane--including load-balancing, service discovery, instrumentation, and routing.

Related Comparisons

Azure Service Fabric vs Docker: What are the differences?

Scalability and Orchestration: Azure Service Fabric is designed to provide a highly scalable and orchestrated environment for deploying and managing microservices-based applications. It provides built-in support for automatic scaling, load balancing, and fault tolerance. On the other hand, Docker is primarily focused on containerization and provides a platform-agnostic way to package and distribute applications. While Docker Swarm provides some orchestration capabilities, it does not have the same level of scalability and built-in features as Azure Service Fabric.
Application Lifecycle Management: Azure Service Fabric offers a complete end-to-end application lifecycle management solution. It provides tools for deploying, upgrading, and monitoring applications throughout their lifecycle. It also supports rolling upgrades, allowing applications to be updated without downtime. Docker, on the other hand, focuses on packaging and distribution of applications. While Docker provides tools for managing containers, it does not have the same level of built-in support for application lifecycle management as Azure Service Fabric.
Service Discovery and Communication: Azure Service Fabric provides built-in service discovery and communication mechanisms. It supports service naming and resolution, allowing services to discover and communicate with each other. It also provides reliable messaging and communication libraries. Docker, on the other hand, does not have the same level of built-in service discovery and communication capabilities. It relies on external tools and frameworks for these functionalities.
Supported Platforms: Azure Service Fabric is a Microsoft technology and is tightly integrated with the Azure ecosystem. It can run on both on-premises infrastructure and in the Azure cloud. Docker, on the other hand, is platform-agnostic and can run on any infrastructure that supports containerization. It can be used with different cloud providers, virtual machines, or even bare-metal servers.
Ecosystem and Community Support: Azure Service Fabric, being a Microsoft technology, has a strong ecosystem and community support. It has a wide range of documentation, tutorials, and community forums for developers to learn and get help. Docker, on the other hand, has a larger ecosystem and community support due to its broader adoption. It has a vast collection of pre-built images and a large community that contributes to its development and support.
Deployment Complexity: Azure Service Fabric, being a comprehensive platform, can have a higher deployment complexity compared to Docker. It requires setting up and managing the Service Fabric cluster and understanding its architecture. Docker, on the other hand, provides a simpler deployment model with containers. It allows for easier packaging and deployment of applications without the need for managing the underlying infrastructure.

Azure Service Fabric vs Docker

Overview