Amazon EKS
Managed Kubernetes service to run containers on AWS and on-premises
About Amazon EKS
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a fully managed Kubernetes platform that simplifies building, securing, operating, and maintaining Kubernetes clusters on AWS. It handles high-availability control planes, patches, and upgrades so teams can focus on deploying applications across cloud, on-premises, and edge environments.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Deep integration with AWS ecosystem (IAM, CloudWatch, VPC, S3, RDS)
- Most widely used managed Kubernetes service globally
- EKS Auto Mode simplifies cluster management significantly
- Supports both cloud and on-premises deployment with EKS Anywhere
- Certified Kubernetes conformant with standard tooling compatibility
- Serverless option with Fargate eliminates node management
Cons
- Cluster management fee of $0.10/hr (~$73/mo) per cluster adds up with multiple clusters
- Longer cluster startup times (10-15 min) compared to GKE (3-5 min)
- Steeper learning curve than Azure AKS for Kubernetes beginners
- Requires more hands-on configuration compared to GKE
- Extended support pricing is 6x standard at $0.60/hr per cluster
Key Features
Managed Control Plane
Fully managed, highly available Kubernetes control plane with automatic patching and upgrades
EKS Auto Mode
Fully automate cluster management for compute, storage, and networking with a single click
AWS Service Integration
Deep integration with CloudWatch, IAM, Auto Scaling Groups, VPC, and other core AWS services
Multi-Environment Deployment
Run Kubernetes consistently across AWS cloud, on-premises with EKS Anywhere, and edge locations
Fargate Support
Run containers without managing servers using AWS Fargate serverless compute
Security & Compliance
Built-in security with IAM authentication, VPC networking, and encryption at rest and in transit
Kubernetes Conformance
Certified Kubernetes conformant ensuring compatibility with standard Kubernetes tools and plugins
High-Performance Networking
Support for Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) enabling high-performance computing and efficient data transfer
Pricing
- Managed control plane
- 14 months standard support per version
- All EKS features
- AWS integrations
- Everything in Standard
- 12 additional months of version support
- Stay on older Kubernetes versions longer
Best For
Microservices Architecture
Deploy and manage containerized microservices with automatic scaling and service discovery
AI/ML Workloads
Run machine learning training and inference workloads on GPU-enabled Kubernetes clusters
Application Modernization
Migrate legacy applications to containers with managed Kubernetes orchestration
Hybrid Cloud Deployment
Run consistent Kubernetes workloads across AWS cloud and on-premises with EKS Anywhere
CI/CD Pipeline Infrastructure
Host build and deployment pipelines in ephemeral containers for consistent, scalable DevOps
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