Amazon EC2 Container Service vs Google Kubernetes Engine: What are the differences?

Introduction

Amazon EC2 Container Service (ECS) and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) are container orchestration platforms that allow users to manage and scale containerized applications. While both provide similar functionalities, there are key differences that set them apart.

1. Launching and Managing Containers: ECS allows users to launch and manage containers using EC2 instances as the underlying compute resources. It provides fine-grained control over container placement and resource allocation. On the other hand, GKE leverages Google Compute Engine (GCE) virtual machines to launch and manage containers. GKE's integration with GCE provides advanced features like auto-scaling and managed instance groups.

2. Container Scheduling: ECS uses a proprietary task scheduler to handle container placement within a cluster. It supports service discovery and load balancing through integration with Amazon Route 53 and Elastic Load Balancer. In contrast, GKE leverages Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration platform, for container scheduling. Kubernetes offers a rich set of features like pod scaling, self-healing capabilities, and service discovery through integrated DNS.

3. Managed vs. Self-managed Service: ECS is a fully managed service provided by AWS, which means that AWS takes care of the underlying infrastructure and ensures high availability and scalability. Users only need to define the container specifications and let ECS handle the rest. On the other hand, GKE is a self-managed service where users are responsible for managing the clusters and nodes. This provides more flexibility and control but requires additional management overhead.

4. Cloud Provider Integration: ECS is tightly integrated with the AWS ecosystem, allowing users to leverage other AWS services like CloudWatch for monitoring, IAM for access control, and AWS Fargate for serverless container provisioning. GKE, on the other hand, offers integration with Google Cloud Platform services like Stackdriver for logging and monitoring and Cloud IAM for access control.

5. Networking and Load Balancing: ECS uses Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) for load balancing and supports both classic and application load balancers. It integrates with Amazon VPC for networking and provides features like security groups and network ACLs for enhanced security. GKE uses Google Cloud Load Balancing for load balancing and supports HTTP(S), SSL/TCP, and network load balancing. It integrates with Google Cloud VPC for networking and provides features like firewall rules and network policies.

6. Pricing Model: ECS pricing mainly depends on the EC2 instances used to host the containers and the additional AWS services utilized. It follows an hourly rate and offers several pricing options for reserved instances. GKE pricing is based on the GCE instances and the additional resources consumed by the cluster. Similar to ECS, GKE provides various pricing options like sustained use discounts and committed use contracts.

In summary, Amazon EC2 Container Service and Google Kubernetes Engine differ in their underlying infrastructure management, container scheduling mechanisms, level of service management, cloud provider integrations, networking/load balancing options, and pricing models.