ECS - The Simplest Way to Run Your Docker Images on AWS.
December 18, 2024

ECS - The Simplest Way to Run Your Docker Images on AWS.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)

If you want to operate your containerized services on AWS, then the simplest way is to use ECS, especially with Fargate instances. Imagine having just to specify what docker image you need to run in a task definition, then you can already launch a new ECS service with that image, with all the health checks, load balancing, and pod management done automatically.

Pros

  • Run your docker image using Fargate instances.
  • Run your docker image using your EC2 instances.
  • Simple management with versioned task definition.
  • Built-in integration with AWS services like CloudWatch, Secrets Manager, Parameter Store, IAM, etc.

Cons

  • There are still a handful of service-specific terms that you need to know before using the service.
  • Auto scaling configuration could be simpler.
  • Deployment could be faster, still takes a couple of minutes each time now.
  • ECS is simple to learn. My team can quickly learn the basics & try it out on the console
  • ECS is also well-supported on the IaC side, so setting a Terraform / Terragrunt repo for the cluster is pretty straightforward.
  • We were able to set up an ECS cluster from scratch, altogether with a Terraform repo, deployed & updated from the Bitbucket pipeline in half a month.
Aside from some ECS-specific terms to learn at first, learning & starting to use ECS is relatively straightforward. AWS docs on the topic are also of high quality, with sound & relevant examples to follow. Troubleshooting container issues is also a breeze thanks to CloudWatch integration & helpful error messages on the AWS console.
EKS is like a full-featured Kubernetes on AWS. ECS is a proprietary container orchestration service by AWS. ECS is much simpler to learn & use. It has built-in tight integration with other AWS services as well. Some key considerations: EKS is like Kubernetes; if your team is familiar with Kubernetes, they will be at home with EKS. What you usually do with Kubernetes, which you can do with EKS ECS, is much simplified; you don't have control/access to the container, so there are some things you can't do, like SSH into a container.

Do you think Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) again?

Yes

HashiCorp Terraform, Bitbucket, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
So you have containerized your app, & want to deploy it to AWS now. Then, the simplest way is to use ECS. Using Fargate instances, you don't have to be concerned with setting up an EC2 cluster to deploy the containers. However, if you're more familiar with a full Kubernetes setup, & are ready to deal with the accompanying complexity, then EKS could be a better choice, as obviously, you have more control over the whole setup with EKS compared to ECS.

Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) Feature Ratings

Container Management
8.7
Security and Isolation
10
Container Orchestration
9
Cluster Management
8
Resource Allocation and Optimization
7
Update Rollouts and Rollbacks
10
Self-Healing and Recovery
9
Analytics, Monitoring, and Logging
8

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