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ECSEKSLambda
ECS, EKS or Lambda: choose the operating model first
All three can scale. The difference is who runs the platform and what the application actually needs.
Jul 20267 min read1 sources reviewed
Start with the workload
Duration, concurrency, CPU and memory use, protocols, state and traffic pattern narrow the decision. Then consider portability, team skills, networking and operational tolerance.
A quick reading
- Lambda: bounded event-driven functions where per-execution billing helps.
- ECS: containers with AWS integration and less operational surface than Kubernetes.
- EKS: Kubernetes when its ecosystem, APIs or portability justify the complexity.
- Fargate or EC2: a second decision about capacity, control and cost.
The cost missing from calculators
Upgrades, add-ons, policies, observability and on-call work also cost money. A more flexible platform can cost more even when compute looks equivalent.
Test with a representative application
Compare deployment, rollback, autoscaling, logs, secrets and failure response. The correct benchmark includes operations, not only requests per second.
Sources reviewed
This article is an original Nubent synthesis. The sources let you inspect the basis and explore each subject further.