AWS recently announced Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), a managed container service that supports Docker containers. The Amazon EC2 Container Registry (ACR) can store and manage private Docker images for ECS users. At the same time, AWS Code Pipeline will be used to control the process of deploying applications from development into production with just a few clicks. In this article, we compare ECS to Kubernetes to see how they stack up against each other.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications. It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery. Kubernetes builds upon a decade and a half of experience at Google running production workloads at scale, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community.
What Is AWS ECS?
ECS is a container management service that makes running, stops, and manages Docker containers on AWS. You can use ECS to launch and stop container-enabled applications with simple API calls, get detailed information about the computer resources your tasks are using, and easily discover all of the services running in your cluster from the Elastic Load Balancing management console or command-line tools.
AWS ECS vs Kubernetes: Comparisons
ECS is one of the many steps AWS has taken to improve their cloud computing platform. The service will compete with Google Cloud Platform’s Container Engine and other container management tools like Docker Swarm, Mesosphere DC/OS, Kubernetes, etc.
Kubernetes is a container management platform that can run on public, private or hybrid clouds. It has been built to manage containers at scale, and its core features include container discovery, scheduling, multi-tenancy support and rolling upgrades. Kubernetes on aws runs Docker images as well as other Linux Container technologies such as rkt (Rocket).
There are many different ways of installing the cluster – from using an installation script provided by Google or deploying it through Vagrant boxes available in GitHub. The community behind the project consists of more than 20 thousand developers, which makes this tool extremely powerful and scalable enough to be used in production by big companies like eBay, Yelp etc. Although there is no native GUI included with Kubernetes, many tools make it easier to manage the cluster.
As you can see, there are quite a few differences between these two platforms. While they do have some similar features, neither of them is exactly the same as the other. Suppose you’re currently using another tool for managing containers. In that case, it might be time to consider switching over if that tool doesn’t support all that your organization needs or if it is getting too expensive to maintain on an ongoing basis. You’ll want something more robust that can handle all of your needs, and ECS might be just what you’re looking for.
AWS ECS or Plain Kubernetes: Which Should You Choose?
Both AWS ECS and Kubernetes are excellent options for container management. It all depends on your needs, but if you want to manage containers at scale, then plain Kubernetes might be the better option as it has been built specifically with that in mind. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a more managed solution where there’s no need to worry about anything besides creating tasks and services, AWS ECS is definitely worth considering!
Final Summary
In this article, we compared two popular choices when it comes down to managing Docker containers – one of them being Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), which Amazon Web recently announced (AWS), and another one being plain Kubernetes which can be deployed on any cloud native architecture provider or even your own servers. Both of them have a lot to offer, and they also share some similarities, but there are many differences – from their installation process, features, ease of use etc.
