Amazon Web Services, a leader in cloud computing, offers two widely used container management solutions, Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), to deploy and oversee containers within the AWS cloud. As the number of containers and their connections multiply, controlling and coordinating them over several computers and settings can become difficult. In this situation, “container orchestration platforms” become crucial. So, be it scalability, reliability, or integration with other AWS services, both ECS and EKS provide excellent outcomes.
However, they differ prominently in their approach and features. ECS is a proprietary container orchestration service developed by AWS, while EKS leverages the open-source Kubernetes platform, which offers a more extensive ecosystem and community support.
In this blog post, we will compare two known container orchestration systems – AWS ECS vs EKS to help you choose the right solution for your business.
Table of Contents:
ECS takes much of the complexity out of running containerized applications at scale, allowing you to focus on building and delivering great software instead of getting stuck in operational details.
Amazon ECS is a fully managed container orchestration service that runs and maintains containers in the Amazon ECS cluster. It works seamlessly with other AWS services to run containers in the cloud. AWS ECS eliminates the need to install, manage, and operate the underlying infrastructure, making it easier for organizations to focus on application development. With ECS, you can run tasks on serverless infrastructure managed by AWS Fargate or on a cluster of Amazon EC2, which the user manages. It has inherent AWS benefits and is trusted by prominent organizations worldwide, such as Samsung, VE, Vanguard, and many more.
As we understood in the above definition, ECS stands out as a robust infrastructure and platform service. But what exactly makes it so beneficial? Explore the key AWS ECS benefits for your containerized applications.
With the help of AWS, you don’t have to take care of provision, management of your own cluster infrastructure, or scalability. It allows you to run and stop Docker containers across a cluster of Amazon EC2 instances with just a few clicks or API calls. ECS automatically handles,
This helps reduce operational overhead, so you have fewer decisions while admiring the full capabilities.
This integration helps simplify your organization’s overall workflows and application management. ECS integrates smoothly with a wide range of other AWS services and utilizes the broader capabilities of the AWS ecosystem.
It automatically scales your container according to the demand to ensure that your applications can handle fluctuating traffic loads efficiently. With the help of automation capabilities, it distributes containers across multiple availability zones, ensuring fault tolerance and minimizing downtime.
EKS empowers organizations to leverage Kubernetes’ potent container orchestration capabilities while offloading the underlying infrastructure complexities to AWS.
AWS EKS is a cloud-based container management service that runs Kubernetes in the AWS cloud and on-premises data centers. At its core, Amazon EKS simplifies the process of orchestrating containerized applications by automatically managing and scaling the underlying infrastructure resources on the AWS platform. This service empowers enterprises to leverage Kubernetes’ powerful capabilities without the overhead of installing, operating, or maintaining the container orchestration software themselves.
EKS allows you to take advantage of various capabilities in AWS infrastructure in terms of performance, scalability, reliability, and availability. Some key AWS EKS benefits include.
AWS EKS allows you to run your Kubernetes applications on Amazon EC2 and AWS Fargate by freeing you up to focus on developing and running containerized applications.
AWS’s optimized resource management, auto-scaling, and Spot Instances help you cut down on infrastructure expenses and operational costs. Thus, help your organization in saving resources and overall costs.
AWS EKS seamlessly integrates with AWS security services, ensuring your Kubernetes clusters are automatically updated and patched and meet industry security standards.
Our AWS experts can help you run your containers in a secure, scalable, and reliable environment by leveraging AWS’s container orchestration services.
Parameters | AWS ECS | AWS EKS |
Architecture | Proprietary container orchestration engine | Managed Kubernetes service |
Deployment unit | Tasks | Pods (containing one or more containers) |
Scalability | Auto-scaling at task or service level | Auto-scaling at the pod or deployment level |
Networking | Basic and limited customization options | Fine-grained control and flexibility |
Security | Deep integration with IAM for access control | Requires add-ons or third-party tools for IAM functionality |
After the tabular comparison, let’s understand the distinctions between the container orchestration systems on various parameters.
ECS and EKS in AWS have different architectural approaches to container orchestration.
ECS Architecture:
EKS Architecture:
ECS: The deployment unit in ECS is a ‘task’, which defines the containers that run together on the same EC2 instances.
EKS: It adheres to the Kubernetes model, deploying applications using Pods as the smallest deployable units that can host one or more containers.
ECS: It supports automatic scaling of tasks based on resource usage or custom metrics. This allows for efficient resource utilization and cost optimization.
EKS: It leverages Kubernetes’ native scaling capabilities to offer auto- scale deployments through features like Horizontal Pod Autoscaling.
ECS: Uses AWS Virtual Private Cloud for networking and allows you to configure security groups and network ACLs to control inbound and outbound traffic.
EKS: Uses AWS Virtual Private Cloud for networking and leverages the Kubernetes networking model that includes features like services, ingress controllers, and network policies.
ECS: This container orchestration service implements the security features of AWS such as,
It also supports secrets management and integration with AWS Secrets Manager.
EKS: It includes the robust security features of Kubernetes, such as,
It also integrates with AWS IAM and other AWS security services.
These container orchestration services in AWS provide diverse usage application and use-cases, catering to the needs of various organizations and their applications. Here are some prominent AWS ECS vs EKS use cases to look at.
ECS excels in deploying and handling microservice-based applications. Microservices are compact, autonomous services that collaborate to build a more extensive application. ECS can scale these services separately, making it a suitable platform for microservice architectures.
ECS can be used to run batch processing jobs, such as,
It can easily scale the resources needed to run these jobs efficiently and cost-effectively.
EKS helps upgrade old applications by turning them into containers and running them on its platform. This process enhances scalability, flexibility, and ease of management, revitalizing the applications.
EKS allows you to create web applications with high scalability and resilience. It adjusts resources automatically based on traffic levels, maintaining application performance and responsiveness even during peak times.
There’s no straightforward answer or a clear winner when it comes to choosing between Amazon EKS vs ECS because the choice does not need to be a binary decision. Both AWS ECS and EKS can work together with shared operations, integrated security, and consistent management for network options. Here, you are required to make sure about the specific use cases, familiarity with Kubernetes, and scalability requirements to understand, ECS vs EKS which is better.
As an AWS select tier services partner, we are highly experienced in building and deploying cloud-native and containerized applications. With a proven track record of providing result-driven AWS development services, our team is well-equipped to handle complex cloud infrastructure projects.
Entrust Rishabh Software’s qualified cloud consulting expertise to guide you through this decision-making process. With extensive practical exposure to both ECS and EKS in AWS, we are well-equipped to advise on and deploy such architectural setups through our managed cloud services.
Our AWS and DevOps experts will evaluate your current infrastructure, considering your business goals and priorities. Based on this assessment, we will tailor solutions to meet your unique business requirements. Our services encompass:
Connect with our AWS experts to automate and optimize your cloud infrastructure at lower costs and gain visibility into your cluster.
A: Container management encompasses the tasks necessary for operating containers in a live environment. It includes:
Performing maintenance activities to keep containers running smoothly. Containers package applications and their necessary components into compact, portable packages, enabling them to execute reliably on various computing systems.
Container management typically involves the following steps:
A: Here are your options for running containers on AWS:
The best option depends on your specific needs for cost, performance, control, and use case.