AWS ECS (Amazon Elastic Container Service) is a fully managed service from Amazon Web Services (AWS) that simplifies the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications.
Overall, AWS ECS makes it easy to run and manage containers at scale in the cloud. It takes care of everything involved in setting up and scaling containers, ensuring our applications run smoothly without getting stuck. ECS also works well with other AWS services like EC2, ECR, IAM, and CloudWatch, which helps in monitoring and managing our containers efficiently. Overall, ECS provides a reliable, scalable, and integrated way to deploy and manage containers within the AWS cloud system.
Why AWS Start its own Container Orchestration Environment :
When considering container platforms like Docker, ECS serves a purpose despite Docker's native capabilities. Docker doesn't have strong auto-healing and auto-scaling capabilities, but Kubernetes does, since it's open-source. AWS developed ECS to avoid dependency on Kubernetes, offering its platform. There is already few independent services called Docker Swarm & MesOS but they are not much popular. AWS ECS and Kubernetes are alike in function but use different terms. Kubernetes uses pods and deployments, while AWS ECS uses Task, Task Definition, Services, and Cluster. ECS is exclusive to AWS customers, whereas Kubernetes is open-source and available to all.
Advantages of using AWS ECS :
Scalability : Easily launch and scale containers without managing infrastructure details. ECS automatically adjusts clusters based on demand.
Cost efficiency : Pay-as-you-go pricing and auto-scaling can significantly reduce costs, optimizing resource utilization across AWS compute options.
Speed and Agility : Streamlined deployment process lets us focus on developing and deploying applications faster.
Security and Compliance : Built-in security features protect containers, meeting regulatory standards for data protection.
Integration : Seamless integration with AWS services such as Elastic Load Balancing, Security Groups, ECR, and CloudWatch increases performance and monitoring capabilities.
Hybrid and multicloud support : ECS works effectively in hybrid environments and supports batch processing. ECS Anywhere extends on-premises operations by ensuring portability to different cloud environments.
High Availability : ECS ensures that applications run continuously with minimal downtime, powered by AWS for reliability.
Ease of use : Fully powered by AWS, ECS simplifies operations by managing the control plane, and charges only for resources used, with no overhead costs.
Disadvantages of Using AWS ECS :
Vendor Lock-in :
AWS ECS tightly connects with our applications to AWS services, making it difficult to switch to other platforms without significant effort. Cause all the manifest we created those are restricted to AWS by ECS. This limits your ability to easily run your applications across different cloud providers, which can affect our flexibility and strategic choices in the long run.
Lack of complete control :
AWS ECS offers a simplified way to manage containers, but that means AWS manages many aspects of the infrastructure. You may not have much say in how networking, storage, or server types are configured, which can be a limitation if you have specific technical requirements or need complete control over these aspects.