Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Kubernetes on AWS enables enterprises to consolidate their containers across multiple public clouds and virtualization platforms and within a single AWS account. You can use the same cluster that runs your production workloads to test and develop new features in the cloud without impacting the performance of your live application.
Why Migrate Legacy Applications to Containers?
Migrating legacy applications to containers can be challenging. Kubernetes on AWS is built to address key problems with traditional deployments of large, complex applications that are difficult to manage and require significant time for testing and configuration management. Kubernetes provides a number of features including:
- Integration with CI/CD tools like Jenkins
- Easily scalable infrastructure without downtime or interruptions
- A unified view across multiple clusters in different accounts
- Centralized logging for improved observability into cluster health and performance
How do I use it? You deploy your container workloads through the Elastic Container Service (ECS) console app or by using one of the many APIs made available from our community partners such as Terraform.
What are the Benefits of Kubernetes on AWS?
- Secure, multi-tenant control plane across multiple accounts and regions (AWS)
- No need to manage virtual networks or overlay protocols like VXLAN or Tincan protocol
- Ability to run containerized applications within a single account without needing cross region network resources with EKS high availability mode enabled.
- Ability to integrate CI/CD tools like Jenkins or use our OpsWorks plugin for Chef Automate
Optimizing Operations Around Your Containers
In addition to the features available in ECS, Kubernetes on AWS provides a number of additional capabilities designed for enterprises with large-scale container deployments.
- Inline tracing across your application and infrastructure layers using X-Ray
- Elastic load balancing that can automatically scale up or down to meet traffic demands at any time within seconds while keeping session affinity intact through sticky sessions
Bolstering Container Security and Compliance
Kubernetes on AWS is built to address key security and compliance challenges. We provide a number of features that enable you to:
Secure your application against distributed denial of service attacks by using our managed WAF or implement CloudFront as an edge load balancer for use with ECS.
Apply PCI, SOC, HIPAA, and DISA STIG controls at the container level through integration with third party services like Twistlock or Black Duck Hub via native Kubernetes plugins.
Kubernetes Best Practices By Infrastructure Layer
Kubernetes on AWS is the only managed Kubernetes service that provides a unified control plane across all regions in multiple accounts. This means you can centralize your deployment, logging, monitoring and automation activity for containerized applications without having to maintain or manage virtual networks or overlay protocols yourself.
AWS Services and Kubernetes Integration
Amazon ECS provides a number of integration points with other AWS services to help you manage your containerized applications. Here are just some of the capabilities that work well in conjunction with Kubernetes on AWS:
Integration between Elastic Load Balancing and Amazon EKS enables automatic scaling for dynamic traffic demands while maintaining session affinity across all application containers through sticky sessions.
Use CloudFormation templates (Cloud Formation) alongside Terraform or OpsWorks to automatically deploy, update, or delete workloads based on changes made within our web console. The same benefits apply when using CI/CD tools like Jenkins by integrating via the plugin architecture provided by each tooling platform.
Next Steps If you’re ready to get started migrating legacy apps or building new microservices on Kubernetes.
Conclusion
Kubernetes has made great strides in the last few years. It’s now possible to deploy a scalable, highly-available cluster with just one command on AWS. However, there are some best practices that you should know about before using it. Read more on this IT Outsourcing Companies post properly for more information on how to get started and what mistakes not to make when deploying your own Kubernetes clusters on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
