The Edge Computing Ecosystem

The Edge Management and Orchestration Ecosystem consists of a diverse set of tools and solutions which all have their strengths and weaknesses. In a growing market, it might be hard sometimes to navigate your way to the solution that fits best for purpose and solves your business’ problem. On this page, we look at a few of the most common solutions for container management at the edge and sort out how they compare to the Avassa Edge Platform.

Avassa vs. Cloud-Centric Edge Solutions

The cloud and the edge represent fundamentally different computing environments. They differ in connectivity, resource availability, security constraints, and scale, especially in terms of the number of distributed locations. Despite these differences, many projects attempt to retrofit cloud-native tools for edge use, simply because those tools are familiar, widely available, or perceived as synonymous with containers and orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes).

Because the edge is not a smaller cloud.

Avassa was purpose-built from the ground up to meet the distinct requirements of edge environments: unreliable connectivity, true site-level autonomy, minimal footprint, intrinsic security, and large-scale automation across thousands of sites. This article outlines how solutions like Avassa compare to cloud-centric edge solutions, and what makes a solution truly edge-native.

Cloud-Centric Edge Architectures: A Quick Typology

While there are nuances in the ecosystem, most cloud-based edge solutions fall into one of the following architectural categories:

1. APIs at the Edge for Cloud Communication

Often marketed under a so-called “IoT Edge” umbrella, these solutions expose APIs on devices for communication with cloud services. They’re typically designed to send telemetry upstream rather than orchestrate workloads downstream. However, critical questions remain unanswered:

How do you deploy and manage applications across edge sites?
How do you ensure continued operation during disconnections?
How do you secure the edge?

Ultimately, these are cloud-first designs with thin edge capabilities, not orchestration platforms.

2. Stretching Cloud Clusters to the Edge

In these architectures, a central control plane (often Kubernetes-based) manages worker nodes running at edge sites. While this model works for a small number of sites with stable connectivity, it breaks down at scale. Challendes include:

Fragility during disconnections or reboots.
Inability to make orchestration decisions locally.
No autonomy if the control plane is unreachable.

These models introduce tight coupling to cloud availability, limiting edge resilience.

3. Cloud-Deployed Clusters with Central Fleet Management

Solutions like Rancher + K3s or Azure IoT Operations improve on earlier models by placing full clusters at the edge with centralized fleet managers. This brings better autonomy and some operational flexibility. But challenges remain:

Edge autonomy is still partial. Secrets, registries, and configuration often rely on central services. Many of these stacks lack support for disconnected operation in real scenarios, like node restarts without cloud connectivity.
High resource footprint: Many cloud-derived tools assume abundant compute, storage, and network capacity. When deployed at the edge, they can quickly overwhelm constrained hardware, leading to inefficiencies, increased costs, or the need to over-provision devices just to run the orchestration stack.
Edge applications require more than just containers. You need coordinated support for secrets, networking, volumes, telemetry, and more.

The result? A bloated and fragmented software stack at every site that’s hard to keep compliant and secure, especially at large scale.

Cloud-Tethered by Design — and by Business Model

A common trait of the first two categories (edge APIs for cloud communication and stretched cloud clusters) is that they are fundamentally designed to drive traffic back to the cloud. From an architectural perspective, these models centralize control, data, and orchestration in the cloud, treating the edge as a thin client. This is reminiscent of early IoT designs, where the intelligence resided centrally and the edge was passive.

But there’s also a commercial dimension to this architecture. Major cloud providers benefit financially from designs that increase cloud dependency, encourage data egress, and monetize API usage from edge sites. Every decision that flows through the cloud becomes a billable event.

Avassa & Comparable Solutions

While cloud-first tools may seem tempting for edge projects due to familiarity, they fall short when faced with the realities of edge computing: intermittent connectivity, distributed scale, and the need for local autonomy.

The Avassa Edge Platform offers a fundamentally different approach—designed from the beginning to meet edge-specific challenges. Unlike cloud-centric solutions retrofitted for edge, Avassa supports full edge autonomy, seamless operation during disconnects, and automated orchestration across thousands of sites. If you want to run modern, containerized applications at the edge—reliably, securely, and at scale—start with a platform built for that mission.

Here follows a set of comparisions between Avassa and comparable solutions.

Balena

What is Balena?

Balena focuses on providing a fleet management solution for the operating system at the edge. They build OS images in their central cloud build server for a wide range of platforms. You can also deploy one application package using Docker Compose to each edge host.

Avassa is great when …

You want to simplify the application lifecycle management across many sites.
You want to pick your OS distribution like Red Hat, Ubuntu etc.
You need to run many different applications at different sites.
When security is important. Avassa sets up micro-segmented application networks, supports secrets management, encrypts traffic, configures host firewalls and more.
Multi-tenancy is required to split and share the edge infrastructure among application teams, customers, or 3rd party vendors.
You need autonomous sites with self-healing capabilities to operate smoothly despite unstable network connections.
You need flexible site networking.
You need edge application monitoring and trouble-shooting.

Balena is great when …

The main problem to solve is the OS layer and you can make use of the Balena distribution.
There is no business-critical need for edge site autonomy.
You have a simple single application that needs to go to all devices.
When you can afford to configure and setup security functions yourself.

Conclusion

Balena focuses solely on the OS layer with the OS distributions they build and support. Balena only provides a simplistic and limited application container solution based on Docker Compose. Avassa addresses the OS layer based on the native OS built-in support for OS upgrades. Most important is that Avassa solves the application layer, you can have several different applications per site. You get out-of-the-box application monitoring. With several hosts on the site, Avassa gives you autonomous self-healing sites, which is not supported by Balena.

Azure IoT

Azure IoT or Avassa at the edge

Azure has for some time had an offering called Azure IoT which allows you to run container workloads at the far edge. However, Azure has announced the retirement of Azure IoT, so if you’re looking for a long-term future-proofed solution, it might be worth considering options. In this comparison, we sort out the difference between Azure IoT and Avassa and give guidance on when to use what. We also cover what a migration to Avassa might entail, for those affected by the Azure IoT end-of-life.

What does Azure IoT do?

Azure IoT lets you deploy a single container application on single on-premise devices. It does not have a concept of an autonomous cluster on the edge site. Azure IoT makes it easy to collect data from edge devices and feed that back to your central Azure cloud application.

Avassa is great when …

You need autonomous sites with self-healing capabilities. Your sites need to work with unstable network connections.
Your edge sites need to host several applications.
Multi-tenancy is required to split and share the edge infrastructure among application teams, customers, or 3rd party vendors.
Application networking is required on the site, including ingress IP and DNS records for the applications.
When security is important. Avassa sets up micro-segmented application networks, supports secrets management, encrypts traffic, configures host firewalls and more.

Azure IoT is great when …

You need a single data collection application at the edge site that forwards data to your central Azure cloud application.
There is no business-critical need for edge site autonomy.
Your application won’t benefit from site networking.
The network requirements are simple and focused on feeding data back to the cloud.
When you can afford to configure and setup security functions yourself.

Integrating Avassa Edge and Azure CI/CD and cloud solutions

While Azure IoT might work for limited use cases like a single data collection container, it might become challenging to use Azure IoT for fully scaled application orchestration at the edge. Since you only deploy one application per device, scale both in terms of deployments and monitoring risk becoming daunting. Avassa instead applies an application-centric approach purpose-built for edge, that allows robust lifecycle management not only application-by-application but for an entire upscale edge environment.

Conclusion

While Azure IoT might work for limited use cases like a single data collection container, it might become challenging to use Azure IoT for fully scaled application orchestration at the edge. Since you only deploy one application per device, scale both in terms of deployments and monitoring risk becoming daunting. Migrating to Avassa instead provides an application-centric approach and tooling purpose-built for edge, with several unique features for operational excellence including offline capabilities and self-organizing clusters.

Keep Reading: Azure IoT Hub Migration: Scalable Industrial IoT and Edge Alternatives

Portainer

Portainer or Avassa at the edge

You might have started off experimenting with single clusters using Kubernetes or Swarm. Then you then reach a point where you need to manage several distributed sites and clusters. Portainer will let you setup several clusters but is it your solution for managing applications at the edge? Here, we’ll try to tell the difference between the Avassa and Portainer and give guidance on when to use what.

What is Portainer?

Portainer is an operational tool for managing Docker, Swarm, Nomad, or Kubernetes. Portainer does not provide a Kubernetes distribution nor any cluster management of on-prem/edge clusters. Portainer provides a centralized user interface and integrated monitoring for applications on your Kubernetes, Nomad, or Swarm clusters. Portainer won’t add anything to each edge site cluster on top of what you get from the one above. Portainer belongs to the same category as Rancher and Six Square/Nuvla in that they are over-the-top Docker Compose or similar solutions.

Avassa is great when …

You need a single coherent solution for managing the lifecycle of container applications at distributed edge sites.
You want to simplify the application lifecycle management across many sites.
When you want a flexible way of deploying applications on a large set of clusters
Multi-tenancy is required to split and share the edge infrastructure among application teams, customers, or 3rd party vendors.
When you want a solution that includes application services like a telemetry bus, secrets manager, DNS, and application networking
When security is important. Avassa sets up micro-segmented application networks, supports secrets management, encrypts traffic, configures host firewalls and more.

Portainer is great when …

You are looking for an operational tool to manage applications in several clusters.
You have chosen a cluster solution already and need an over-the-top tool.
You can limit yourself to deploying applications per cluster.
Multi-tenancy is not required.
You can afford to manage several software projects to build your edge stack.
When you can afford to configure and setup security functions yourself.

Conclusion

Portainer is a thin multi-site solution that uses Docker Compose or similar on the sites. Avassa will give you application-centric features like application monitoring, application networking and application services like a telemetry bus. Avassa also gives you fully autonomous edge sites.

Rancher

What is Rancher?

Rancher is a multi-cluster solution that lets you deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters. It offers centralized authentication, access control, and observability capabilities for the clusters runnings in diverse environments. Similar to other multi-cluster solutions, it’s more focused on the clusters themselves than the edge application lifecycle. It also embeds a Kubernetes distribution for the edge; K3S.

Avassa is great when …

You want a self-service portal for your edge application teams, customers or 3rd party teams.
You want application lifecycle management for the edge, including monitoring, observability, deployments and secrets management.
You require multi-tenancy across the edge sites.
You want a unified solution that includes site-local secrets and a telemetry pub/sub bus.
When security is important. Avassa sets up micro-segmented application networks, supports secrets management, encrypts traffic, configures host firewalls and more.

Rancher is great when …

You need a solution to manage Kubernetes clusters at several places.
Your use case focuses more on managing a set of Kubernetes clusters than deploying applications across a large set of edge sites.
When you can take the extra cost of integrating other projects for application services like a telemetry bus.
When you can afford to configure and setup security functions yourself.

Conclusion

To summarize there are two major take-aways when considering Rancher or Avassa for the Edge:

Avassa gives you an application centric self-service portal for your application and monitoring team, while Rancher is cluster centric
While Rancher works for managing a limited set of edge sites, the larger your distributed domain is you will see the benefits of Avassa which is purpose-built for the edge, not “just” managing a set of clusters.

AWS

What is AWS ECS Anywhere?

To extract from Amazon ECS Anywhere developer documentation:

“Amazon ECS Anywhere provides support for registering an external instance such as an on-premises server or virtual machine (VM), to your Amazon ECS cluster. External instances are optimized for running applications that generate outbound traffic or process data.”

To use AWS ECS Anywhere at the edge, you install two AWS agents on your on-premises server to make it available for registration in your central ECS cluster. It’s important to note that AWS ECS Anywhere stretches a single host from the central cloud cluster to the on-premises compute. Consequently, it’s still assuming a central cloud cluster for continuous control as it does not provide an on-site cluster.

AWS for the edge

AWS provides different products for different edge use cases.

AWS Greengrass IoT is toolkit lets you develop applications for the edge utilizing AWS SDKs on your edge device and manage it remotely.
AWS ECS Anywhere lets you run and manage container workloads on your infrastructure, stretching your ECS clusters to edge nodes.

The AWS Greengrass IoT offering is difficult to compare with Avassa in a relevant fashion. Avassa is a platform to manage standard container applications at distributed edge sites. AWS Greengrass IoT does not provide a general edge container solution, rather is focused on providing AWS APIs on a compute host.

That said, AWS ECS Anywhere is a solution that is more comparable to Avassa in that sense that it addresses the challenge to lifecycle manage standard containers at the edge. Therefore, the rest of this comparison will mainly focus on Avassa and AWS ECS Anywhere.

Avassa is great when …

You need autonomous sites with self-healing capabilities. Your sites need to work with unstable network connections.
When you want to utilize an application developer self-service portal for your edge.
Multi-tenancy is required to split and share the edge infrastructure among application teams, customers, or 3rd party vendors.
Application networking is required on the site, including ingress IP and DNS records for the applications.
When you need out-of-the-box monitoring for your edge applications.
When you need an application-centric way of deploying applications across edge site clusters

AWS ECS Anywhere is great when …

You need a single data collection application at the edge site that forwards data to your central AWS cloud application.
There is no business-critical need for edge site autonomy. You can assume that the edge is always connected to the AWS cloud.
Your application won’t benefit from flexible site networking.
When the value of reusing AWS tooling for both cloud and edge is higher than adapting supplementary tooling purpose-built for edge.
When you can afford to build and integrate an application-centric edge monitoring solution using AWS tools.
When you can live with deploying applications per cluster.

Conclusion

It’s key to be aware that AWS ECS Anywhere is a solution that targets simpler data collection applications at the edge. If your architecture is heavy on the cloud side in AWS, and you have a limited number of small, non-business critical containers running at the edge, AWS ECS Anywhere might be the right tool for you.

But if you have current and/or future needs for frequent deployments of more complete container applications in up-scale edge environments, the benefits of a purpose-built solution, resistent of the consequences of connectivity outages and with local clustering, would be a better call. With a Avassa for the edge and AWS for central cloud, an efficient, hybrid solution paves the way for equal innovation in cloud and at edge.

Integrating Avassa and AWS ECS Anywhere

A common setup amongst our customers is a hybrid approach, where you run Avassa for the edge and your central application components in the AWS cloud. Avassa’s secure vaults can be used to distribute AWS credentials for the edge application. The Avassa Fluent Bit plugin can be used to ship logs and metrics to CloudWatch.

SixSq: Nuvla

What is SixSq / Nuvla?

In the Nuvla portal, you can monitor the status of your edge nodes and also have the capability to deploy applications in the form of Docker Compose to individual edge sites. Nuvla assumes you run Docker Compose and Swarm on your edge nodes. From an edge node perspective you get what you get from the Docker family at the edge site. Nuvla falls into the category of over-the-top solutions for Docker Compose/Swarm. In that perspective, it is similar to Portainer.

Avassa is great when …

You need a coherent single solution for the edges and central management.
You want to simplify the application lifecycle management across many sites.
You want an application-centric solution.
You need full historic and real-time logs.
Multi-tenancy is required to split and share the edge infrastructure.
You need edge application services like distributed secrets and a telemetry bus.

SixSq: Nuvla is great when …

You are looking for an operational tool to manage multiple Docker Compose nodes
You are looking for a Rancher or Portainer alternative.
You don’t need infrastructure monitoring.
You only need recent distributed log history.
You do not need multi-tenancy

Hashicorp Nomad

What is Hashicorp Nomad?

HashiCorp Nomad is a workload orchestration system that allows you to automate the management of containerized and non-containerized applications across hybrid- and multi-cloud architectures. While Avassa is purpose-built for the edge, Hashicorp Nomad does not focus primarily on the edge use case, but is rather more targeted at central data centers.

Avassa is great when …

You need to manage applications across many heterogeneous, distributed edge sites.
The locations in which you run applications carry meaning, e.g. specific stores, restaurants, factories, devices etc.
You need an application-centric view of your distributed edge environment at scale.

Hashicorp Nomad is great when …

You need to manage hybrid workloads in a few central data centers and multi-cloud solutions.
The specific location is unimportant, and clusters run in central data centers.
It’s sufficient to lifecycle manage applications using a cluster-by-cluster abstraction level.

Conclusion

While Nomad is a good product to manage workloads in a few central data-centers it is not built for the edge use case. When considering the distributed edge you need to look at how you manage your distributed edge site clusters and applications running across clusters. This is not what Nomad was built for.

Abstract line graphic showing a transition from cloud to edge computing, illustrating the shift from centralized to distributed systems.

demo

Book a demo

Welcome to book a demo of our edge platform. Book a demo at a time slot that is good for you. You’ll receive a calendar invite to the email address that you provide. That’s it! We look forward to showing you around our application orchestration solution for the distributed edge.