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Amazon Virtual Private Cloud vs Apache Spark comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.7
Effective use of Amazon VPC, especially with appropriate EC2 instances, yields significant financial returns, particularly beneficial for startups.
Sentiment score
5.6
Apache Spark provides up to 50% cost savings, boosting efficiency and reducing expenses significantly in machine learning analytics.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Amazon VPC support receives mixed reviews, praised for expertise but facing issues with communication delays and need for self-navigation.
Sentiment score
6.0
Apache Spark offers vibrant community support and resources, with commercial support available through vendors like Cloudera and Hadoop.
The technical support from Amazon has been excellent.
Cloud and Network Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
When we use business support, the availability of the engineers is very good.
CloudOps Expert at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
I would rate the technical support of Apache Spark an eight because when we had questions, we found solutions, and it was straightforward.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
I have received support via newsgroups or guidance on specific discussions, which is what I would expect in an open-source situation.
Data Architect at Devtech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Amazon VPC offers excellent scalability with tools like Auto Scaling, efficiently managing demand for companies of all sizes.
Sentiment score
7.4
Apache Spark's scalability and versatility enable efficient large-scale data processing, making it a reliable choice for diverse teams.
The scalability and ability to expand within Amazon Virtual Private Cloud performs very well.
Cloud and Network Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Amazon VPC is praised for security and uptime, with minimal downtime and quick resolution of configuration issues ensuring reliability.
Sentiment score
7.4
Apache Spark is praised for its robust stability and reliability, with high user ratings despite minor configuration challenges.
MapReduce needs to perform numerous disk input and output operations, while Apache Spark can use memory to store and process data.
Data Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Without a doubt, we have had some crashes because each situation is different, and while the prototype in my environment is stable, we do not know everything at other customer sites.
Data Architect at Devtech
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon VPC users face challenges with compatibility, usability, pricing, and integration, desiring improved documentation, security, and customization.
Apache Spark needs improvements in real-time querying, user-friendliness, logging, large dataset handling, and expanded programming language support.
It would be great if we could use the AWS Direct Connect in Mongolia.
Unitel Group at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Based on my experience, there are aspects of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud that could be improved to enhance the solution.
Cloud and Network Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Various tools like Informatica, TIBCO, or Talend offer specific aspects, licensing can be costly;
Data Architect at Devtech
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find Amazon VPC pricing complex and costly, but competitive when extensively using AWS products with minimal configuration setup.
Apache Spark is cost-effective but can incur high infrastructure costs, especially in cloud setups like Databricks, with setup time variability.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon VPC offers security, scalability, and easy integration with AWS, featuring flexible pricing and customizable policies for efficient management.
Apache Spark provides scalable, in-memory data processing with flexible support for distributed computing, streaming, and machine learning integration.
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud allows the nodes to talk to each other, enhances our security with its security group feature, and the network access list can isolate attackers, while the subnet service organizes our nodes' network topology and provides access to customers.
Unitel Group at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The ability to define and work with subnets is particularly helpful in managing the networking environment.
Cloud and Network Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
For security and ACLs, Routing Tables, route tables, subnet, and subnetting, these are very useful functions.
CloudOps Expert at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
The most important part is that everything can be connected, and the data exchange across overseas connections is fast and reliable.
Consultant, Chief Engineer, Teamleiter at infoteam Software AG
Apache Spark is the solution, and within it, you have PySpark, which is the API for Apache Spark to write and run Python code.
Data Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
Data Architect at Devtech
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
Ranking in Compute Service
8th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Apache Spark
Ranking in Compute Service
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (1st), Java Frameworks (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Compute Service category, the mindshare of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud is 2.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Apache Spark is 10.1%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compute Service Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Spark10.1%
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud2.6%
Other87.3%
Compute Service
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2754069 - PeerSpot reviewer
Unitel Group at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Network flexibility and security have been enhanced
The most beneficial feature of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud for our use case is the site-to-site connection, allowing our data centers to connect to the AWS EC2 nodes, which is currently the most useful feature for us. The Elastic Network Interface is the main component of our networking services within Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, allowing us to connect to our nodes and enabling all node-to-node communication, node-to-customer, and customer-to-node interactions. It is a really helpful feature for us. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud allows the nodes to talk to each other, enhances our security with its security group feature, and the network access list can isolate attackers, while the subnet service organizes our nodes' network topology and provides access to customers. It is a really great feature, and I would highly recommend it.
Devindra Weerasooriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at Devtech
Provides a consistent framework for building data integration and access solutions with reliable performance
The in-memory computation feature is certainly helpful for my processing tasks. It is helpful because while using structures that could be held in memory rather than stored during the period of computation, I go for the in-memory option, though there are limitations related to holding it in memory that need to be addressed, but I have a preference for in-memory computation. The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
25%
Performing Arts
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise32
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Virtual Private Cloud?
Looking for a cloud native scheduler services for ec2 and rds instances within aws virtual private network. That would help to put our instances down in the non business hours very effectively rath...
What do you like most about Apache Spark?
We use Spark to process data from different data sources.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Spark?
Apache Spark is open-source, so it doesn't incur any charges.
What needs improvement with Apache Spark?
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark. I used it for two years for our prototype work and testing things, but because I had...
 

Also Known As

Amazon VPC
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Virtual Private Cloud vs. Apache Spark and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.