Other Compute Services

Docker #

Docker is a software development platform to deploy apps.

Apps are packaged in containers that can be run on any OS.

• Applications function in the same way, no matter where they’re run
  • Any machine
  • No compatibility issues
  • Predictable behavior
  • Less work
  • Easier to maintain and deploy
• Scale containers up and down quickly (seconds)

Docker images are stored in Docker Repositories.

• Public: Docker Hub (https://hubl.docker.com)
• Private: Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry)

ECS (Elastic Container Service) #

Amazon ECS = Elastic Container Service.

ECS allows launching Docker containers on AWS. It is an orchestrator.

• You must provision and maintain the infrastructure (EC2 instances)
• AWS takes care of starting / stopping containers
• Has integrations with the Application Load Balancer

Fargate #

• Launch Docker containers on AWS
• Serverless. No need to provision the infrastructure (no EC2 instances to manage)
• AWS runs the containers based on CPU / RAM needed

ECR #

• Elastic Container Registry
• Private Docker Registry on AWS

Amazon EKS #

Amazon EKS = Elastic Kubernetes Service.

Allows launching and managing Kubernetes clusters on AWS.

Kubernetes is an open-source system for management, deployment and scaling of containerized apps (Docker, Containerd).

Containers can be hosted on:

• EC2 instances
• Fargate

Lambda #

• Virtual functions - no servers to manage
• Limited by time - short executions
• Run on-demand
• Scaling is automated

Benefits of Lambda #

• Easy pricing:
  • Pay per request and compute time
• Integrated with the whole AWS suite of services
• Event-Driven: functions get invoked by AWS when needed
• Integrated with many programming languages
  • Node.js (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Java
  • C# (.NET Core) / PowerShell
  • Ruby
  • Custom Runtime API (community supported, example Rust or Golang)
• Easy monitoring through AWS CloudWatch
• Easy to get more resources per functions (up to 10 GB of RAM)
• Increasing RAM will also improve CPU and Network

Lambda Container Image - although ECS / Fargate is preferred for running Docker images.

Lambda pricing is based on calls and duration.

Amazon API Gateway #

• Fully managed service for developers to easily create, publish, maintain, monitor and secure APIs
• Serverless and scalable
• Supports RESTful APIs and WebSocket APIs
• Support for security, user authentication, API throttling, API keys, monitoring

Creating Serverless API = API Gateway + Lambda. Expose Lambda functions as HTTP API. #

AWS Batch #

• Fully managed batch processing at any scale
• Efficiently run 100,000s of computing batch jobs on AWS
• A “batch” job is a job with start and and end (opposed to continuous)
• Batch will dynamically launch EC2 instances or Spot instances
• AWS batch provisions the right amount of compute / memory
• You submit or schedule batch jobs and AWS Batch does the rest
• Batch jobs are defined as Docker images and run on ECS
• Helpful for cost optimizations and focusing less on the infrastructure

Batch vs Lambda #

• Lambda
  • Time limit
  • Limited runtimes
  • Limited temporary disk space
  • Serverless
• Batch
  • No time limit
  • Any runtime as long as it’s packaged as a Docker image (no programming language dependency)
  • Rely on EBS / Instance Store for disk space
  • Relies on EC2 (can be managed by AWS)

Lightsail #

• Virtual servers, storage, databases and networking
• Low & predictable pricing
• Simpler alternative to using EC2, RDS, ELB, EBS, Route53
• Great for people with little cloud experience
• Can setup notifications and monitoring of your Lightsail resources
• Use cases:
  • Simple web applications
  • Websites
  • Dev / Test environment
• Has High Availability but no auto scaling, limited AWS integrations

Summary #

• Docker: container technology to run applications
• ECS: run Docker container on EC2 instances
• Fargate:
  • Run Docker containers without provisioning the infrastructure
  • Serverless offering (no EC2 instances)
• ECR: Private Docker Images Repository
• EKS: Allows launching and managing Kubernetes clusters on AWS (hosted on: EC2 instances OR Fargate)
• Batch: run batch jobs on AWS across managed EC2 instances
• Lightsail: predictable & low pricing for simple application & DB stacks
• Lambda:
  • Serverless, Function as a Service, seamless scaling, reactive
  • Lambda Billing:
    • By the time run x by the RAM provisioned
    • By the number of invocations
  • Language support: many programming languages except (arbitrary) Docker
  • Invocation time: up to 15 minutes
• API Gateway: expose Lambda functions as HTTP API

» Sources « #

• ECS Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ecs/

» References « #

• EC2

» Disclaimer « #