So, at this point, you are probably asking yourself when you should choose Amazon ECS, EKS, or ROSA as the right solution. When choosing between ECS, EKS, and ROSA, it’s important to consider the specific requirements of your application and use case:
EKS is a managed Kubernetes service that allows you to easily deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications on the AWS cloud. It provides a fully managed Kubernetes control plane and integrates with other AWS services such as Elastic Load Balancing and Amazon RDS. If you are already familiar with Kubernetes and want to leverage its flexibility and scalability, EKS is a good choice.
ECS is a container orchestration service that allows you to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications on the AWS cloud. It provides a simple and easy-to-use interface for deploying and managing containerized applications and integrates with other AWS services such as Elastic Load Balancing and Amazon RDS. If you are looking for a simpler and more integrated service that is tightly integrated with the AWS ecosystem, ECS is a good choice.
ROSA is a fully managed service that allows you to run Red Hat OpenShift clusters on the AWS cloud. It provides a simple and easy way to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications using Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift. It also provides integration with other AWS services such as Amazon EBS for storage and Amazon VPC for networking. If you are looking for a fully managed service that provides the full functionality of Red Hat OpenShift and benefits from the security, compliance, and global infrastructure of AWS, ROSA is a good choice.
Ultimately, it’s important to evaluate the features and capabilities of each service, and how well they align with your specific use case and requirements. The following table shows a comparison between these three container services in AWS.
| ECS | EKS | ROSA |
|---|---|---|
| An AWS-native platform to provide simplicity when running containers | Provides open flexibility for running Kubernetes clusters | Provides a turnkey platform to run the container with Open Redshift |
| The AWS way to run containers at scale | AWS-optimized managed Kubernetes clusters | An integrated Kubernetes-based application platform with built-in CI/CD, monitoring, and developer tools |
| Reduces decision-making without sacrificing scale or features | Builds your custom platform for ompliance and security with AWS services and community solutions | Activate ROSA and continue with existing OpenShift skills and processes, from on-prem environments to the cloud |
| Reduces the time to build, deploy, and migrate applications | Accelerates your containerization and modernization with canonical patterns using AWS Blueprints | Accelerates application migration and modernization by rehosting, re-platforming, or re-factoring workloads |
The total costs of building and operating container platforms start with the choice of container orchestrators and add-on tools for end-to-end application development, deployment, and operations. EKS and ECS provide flexibility to mix and match with both AWS and best-in-class solutions from the community. ROSA offers an out-of-the-box integrated platform ready for developers and DevOps engineers.
Amazon ECS is usually a good option for simple use cases. Amazon ECS provides a quick solution that can host containers at scale. For simple workloads, you can be up and running quickly with Amazon ECS. Amazon EKS is a favorable choice due to its active ecosystem and community, uniform open-source APIs, and extensive adaptability. It is capable of managing more intricate use cases and demands, but it may require more effort to learn and utilize effectively.
If you are currently running OpenShift applications on-premises and intend to migrate your application to the cloud, ROSA provides fully managed Red Hat OpenShift. You can take advantage of an integrated approach for creating and scaling clusters, along with a unified billing system that supports on-demand pricing. It may also be beneficial to test and deploy a proof of concept with each service before making a final decision.
AWS also offers the App2Container (A2C) service, which is a command-line tool that helps migrate and modernize Java and .NET web applications into container format. A2C analyzes and inventories all applications running on physical machines, Amazon EC2 instances, or in the cloud; packages application artifacts and dependencies into container images; configures network ports; and generates the necessary deployment artifacts for Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS. With A2C, you can efficiently manage the container and benefit from a unified and streamlined deployment process.
You can learn more about A2C service by visiting the AWS page – https://aws.amazon.com/app2container/ .