Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is managed Kubernetes on AWS. It runs the Kubernetes control plane for you, so teams already invested in Kubernetes get it without operating the masters themselves.
When EKS fits
The tell is the word Kubernetes — existing Kubernetes workloads, Kubernetes tooling/ecosystem, or multi-cloud portability. EKS runs on EC2 or Fargate. If the scenario doesn’t specifically need Kubernetes, ECS is simpler; if it does, EKS.
Test yourself
A company has existing Kubernetes workloads and wants them managed on AWS without operating the Kubernetes control plane. Which service?
- Amazon ECS
- Amazon EKS
- AWS Lambda
- AWS Elastic Beanstalk
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: B. EKS is managed Kubernetes — existing Kubernetes workloads run with AWS operating the control plane. ECS (A) is AWS-native, not Kubernetes; Lambda (C) is serverless functions; Beanstalk (D) is PaaS for apps, not Kubernetes.
Related topics
Amazon ECS · ECS vs EKS vs Fargate · Amazon ECR
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