Summary

Amazon EKS and ECS are compared, highlighting their differences in networking, ease of deployment, security, compatibility, pricing, community support, and namespaces to help users decide which AWS container orchestration service best fits their project needs.

Abstract

Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) and Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) are both container orchestration services offered by AWS, each with its own set of features and use cases. EKS is built on the open-source Kubernetes system, providing advanced orchestration for enterprise applications with high container density and portability across clouds and on-premise environments. In contrast, ECS is a native AWS solution that offers simplicity and ease of use for smaller applications with seamless deployment directly from the AWS console. EKS supports up to 750 Kubernetes pods per EC2 instance, while ECS can allocate ENIs to tasks with a limit of 120 tasks per EC2 instance. ECS is praised for its straightforward setup and fully managed service, whereas EKS requires more complex configurations and expertise in Kubernetes, including the use of Kops for deployment. Both services support IAM roles for security, with EKS recently adding container-level IAM role support. EKS's Kubernetes base offers better compatibility and portability, while ECS is exclusive to AWS. Pricing for both includes compute resource costs, but EKS incurs additional fees for managing master nodes. Kubernetes' large community supports EKS, while ECS benefits from AWS corporate support. EKS's use of Kubernetes namespaces allows for workload isolation and resource sharing within the same cluster, a feature not found in ECS. The choice between EKS and ECS ultimately depends on the project's size, complexity, and the need for cloud-agnostic solutions.

Opinions

EKS is considered more suitable for large or hybrid deployments due to its advanced customization and portability.
ECS is recommended for those new to containers or for small deployments due to its simplicity and availability.
EKS is seen as a better choice for scaling clusters and for teams with Kubernetes expertise or existing Kubernetes workloads.
ECS may become limiting as applications grow in complexity, suggesting Kubernetes (and by extension, EKS) as a more future-proof and versatile approach.
The use of namespaces in EKS is highlighted as a significant advantage for managing staging and production environments efficiently.
Despite the additional cost of managing master nodes, EKS is still considered for its strategic advantages in certain scenarios.

AWS — Amazon EKS vs ECS — Comparison

Difference between Amazon EKS and Amazon ECS in AWS

TL;DR:

EKS gives an advanced orchestration solution with improved portability between clouds and on-premise systems for enterprise applications. ECS gives simplicity, availability and seamless deployment to run small applications.

EKS vs ECS — Key differences:

Networking

With ECS, ENIs can be allocated to a ‘Task’, and an EC2 instance can support up to 120 tasks. With EKS, ENIs can be allocated to and shared between Kubernetes pods, enabling the user to place up to 750 Kubernetes pods per EC2 instance (depends on instance type) which achieves a much higher container density than ECS.

Ease of Deployment

ECS is a more straightforward platform while EKS is a little more complex and requires more configuration. As ECS is AWS native solution, there is no control plane, Where as EKS is based on Kubernetes, there is a control plane (managed).

ECS is a fully managed service, it doesn’t have as many moving parts, components and functionality as k8s does. Once it is set up, users can start deploying tasks straight away from AWS console.

EKS is a bit trickier and requires a more complex deployment configuration and expertise. After setting it up in the AWS console, user is required to configure and deploy Pods via Kubernetes, using Kops.

Security

ECS and EKS, both supports IAM roles per task/container.

Previously, it was not possible to associate an IAM role to a container in EKS, but this functionality was added in late 2019.

Compatibility/Portability

ECS is an AWS proprietary technology, whereas EKS based on Kubernetes which is open source.

While both ECS and EKS are AWS-specific services, Kubernetes-as-a-service can be used with any cloud provider and on-premise. By using a managed Kubernetes service like EKS, you’re still investing in a cloud-agnostic platform, both in terms of tech and expertise. This isn’t the case for ECS, though, as it’s offered exclusively for AWS.

Pricing

For both, EKS and ECS — You simply pay for the compute resources consumed by your containers, whether that be on EC2 instances or serverless compute with Fargate.

EKS is subjected to an additional cost of running Master nodes (Control plane), as EKS manages the master nodes (that run across multiple availability zones) separate from the worker nodes ($0.10/hour/cluster). While that’s not the case with ECS.

Community and Support

Kubernetes is an open-source platform with a large and ever-growing community behind that brings apparent advantages. On the other hand, being proprietary, ECS gets less community support, although you’ll have excellent corporate support from AWS.

Kubernetes (EKS) is way more widespread than ECS, given its multi-platform support.

Namespaces

Contrary to ECS, Kubernetes has the “namespaces” concept, which is a feature intended to isolate workloads running in the same cluster. This seems like an insignificant feature but it offers a lot of advantages. For example, you could have staging and production namespaces running in the same cluster while sharing resources across environments, reducing spare capacity in your clusters.

Summary

ECS and EKS both are very capable container orchestration solutions which will help you to manage containers at scale. Choosing between EKS and ECS depends on the size and nature of project.

EKS 1. Large or hybrid deployments - prefer EKS for its stronger customization and improved portability between clouds and on-premise systems. 2. If you are experienced and looking for a better way to scale clusters, perhaps EKS is the solution. 3. If you already have containers running on Kubernetes or want an advanced orchestration solution with more compatibility, you should use EKS. 4. Legacy workloads - if you are transitioning to a containerized environment, plain Kubernetes may be the best choice, as it will allow you to build a dev/test/production environment on-premises, and then move it to the cloud.

ECS 1. If you are new to containers and you are looking for a solution that combines simplicity and availability, then ECS is the right choice for you. 2. Small deployments - prefer ECS due to its seamless deployment and configuration. 3. ECS has free control plane.

Kubernetes is the more future-proof and versatile approach. ECS quickly becomes too limiting when the application starts to grow in complexity and size.

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