Containers on AWS: An Introduction

Containers are a way to package software in a portable and efficient manner. Containers allow developers to package an application and its dependencies to run consistently across different environments.

On AWS, there are several services for running and managing containers:

Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)

This service allows you to run and manage Docker containers on AWS. It provides a simple and scalable way to run containerized applications and can be used to deploy and scale services on Amazon EC2 or AWS Fargate.

AWS Fargate

This service is a serverless compute engine for containers that allows you to run containers without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure. It is integrated with ECS and will enable you to quickly deploy and scale containers without provisioning or managing servers.

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)

This service allows you to run Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration system, on AWS. It makes it easy to deploy, scale, and manage containerized applications using Kubernetes.

AWS App Runner

This service automates containerized application building, testing, and deployment. It automatically builds and tests your application when you push code changes and deploys it to your desired environment.

AWS App Mesh

This service is a mesh that makes monitoring and controlling the communication between microservices easy. It provides features such as traffic management, service discovery, and security for your containerized applications.

These services can run and manage containers on AWS, but each has specific use cases and features. For example, if you are looking for a simple and scalable way to run containerized applications, ECS or Fargate would be a good choice. If you are looking for an open-source container orchestration system, EKS would be a good choice. AWS App Runner and AWS App Mesh are used to automating containerized applications’ building and deployment and monitor and control the communication between microservices.

In this session, we cover all options for running containers on AWS. This includes an introduction of container concepts and an overview of the different services: Amazon Elastic Container Service, AWS Fargate, and Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes. We also cover best practices for choosing the right orchestration platform for your workload, the different tools for making this process more manageable, and ways to find more information and support as you work.