Amazon Elastic Container Service Reviews

I am a cloud consultant working with Devoteam, a consulting company. I specialize in AWS and work with a large range of customers using AWS as their cloud platform. 

Depending on the clients I am working with, I use several services, including compute services like EC2 instances, VPC for networking, serverless services like Lambda functions, EventBridge for event-driven architecture, and Kubernetes infrastructure using Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

Moving to Amazon ECS, particularly in Fargate mode, allowed our customer to benefit from not having to manage the underlying infrastructure. This accelerated the deployment of the containers on Amazon’s platform and allowed for easier integration with CI/CD pipelines, thereby improving operational efficiency.

A really good feature of ECS is the integration with AWS services, especially the networking services like Elastic Load Balancer, Service Mesh, and Service Map, which simplifies the service discovery process. Additionally, ECS's auto-scaling capability is well-integrated with CloudWatch, allowing it to trigger scaling based on both basic and custom metrics.

The user interface of ECS could be improved for better navigation and to assist in quickly setting up a deployment. The ECS auto-scaling feature could also improve its reactivity to scaling needs. Additionally, implementing end-to-end encryption natively and more easily would be beneficial, as it currently requires a lot of work.

We did not encounter stability issues during my mission with the deployment on ECS, but it is important to note that we did not have a high number of workloads, so I can’t provide insights on high scalability scenarios.

One strength of ECS is the integration with CloudWatch metrics for auto-scaling; however, its reactivity in scaling can be slower compared to Kubernetes. While ECS is well-integrated for scaling, the auto-scaling process could be more responsive.

The support is generally responsive and provides helpful information. However, when we had specific technical questions regarding encryption, the support was less helpful. For detailed and specialized queries, we had to consult with AWS container specialists.

Starting from scratch, without prior experience on ECS, setting up a first workload for testing takes about one to two hours. This includes understanding concepts like tasks, task definitions, and networking aspects.

The pricing for ECS Fargate is based on resource consumption, particularly CPU and memory usage per hour. Although it may be more expensive than other solutions, it saves costs on infrastructure maintenance, making it reasonable overall.

If you are on AWS and do not have a lot of time or personnel skilled enough to maintain an orchestration platform, using ECS in Fargate mode is a good choice.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

I use the product for Azure folders, which act as a shared folder between the servers. I utilize it as a network file system for storing logs and managing software across all the servers in various availability zones. I have two instances: one for production and another for QA and testing purposes. I mount this file system across all virtual machines, creating a unified storage solution for logs, outputs, and other data generated by various jobs and tasks. 

Implementing the product has helped me monitor the parameters. I utilize tools like CloudWatch and AWS systems to track these parameters. If any issues arise, I alert our developer team to address and resolve them. The product helps to have a global file system. Also, it helps in data replication from region to region. 

The solution must improve backup and compatibility around OS like Windows and Mac. 

I have been working with the product since 2018. 

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten. 

I rate Amazon ECS scalability an eight out of ten. 

While implementing the product may initially pose a learning curve, it's not overly difficult.The key is to track progress and adapt to the learning curve.

My boss told me we get good ROI with the tool's use. 

The product's pricing is good. 

I rate Amazon ECS a nine out of ten. 

We use Amazon Elastic Container Service to run containers.

Amazon Elastic Container Service serves the function it's supposed to serve.

The solution's user experience and management are really bad.

Amazon Elastic Container Service is not a user-friendly solution. The process of creating everything in Amazon Elastic Container Service is messy. Everything sits in very different locations, and it's not centralized. For example, their networking sits under EC2. You also need to manage the DNS records, which sit under Route 53.

The deployment configuration is located in one place, and the actual EC2 is located in a different place. You have a lot of components to manage, and every one of them is located in a different place, which makes it disorganized.

I have been using Amazon Elastic Container Service for two years.

We never had any issues with the solution's stability, and all the stability issues were user mistakes. When it's that complex, you can make a lot of mistakes. Amazon is doing what they're promising. I can rate the solution a ten out of ten for stability, but the problem is that it's complex. So, you have downtime because of user mistakes.

Amazon Elastic Container Service is a scalable solution. Five people are working with Amazon Elastic Container Service directly, but all our clients are using it.

The solution's initial setup is difficult because you need to be aware of different components in different places.

Amazon Elastic Container Service has a decent price, which is neither cheap nor expensive.

Our company chose Amazon Elastic Container Service because they didn't have the skill set to work with Kubernetes before I joined.

Overall, I rate Amazon Elastic Container Service a six out of ten.

We use Amazon EC2 Container Service for running applications and data.

The most valuable feature of Amazon EC2 Container Service is its flexibility.

I have been using Amazon EC2 Container Service for quite a long time.

The solution's stability is almost perfect, but some outages occasionally occur.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.

The solution's scalability is perfect.

The solution's initial setup is easy.

We have seen a return on investment with Amazon EC2 Container Service.

We have to pay a monthly licensing fee for Amazon EC2 Container Service. The solution's pricing is acceptable.

I am using the latest version of Amazon EC2 Container Service. Amazon EC2 Container Service is a cloud-based solution.

I would recommend Amazon EC2 Container Service to other users.

Overall, I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service ten out of ten.

We use Amazon EC2 Container Service to take complete workloads to the cloud for various applications.

Amazon EC2 Container Service has reduced our infrastructure cost. We migrate some workloads from our on-premises data center to the cloud, where it runs as per the requirement, and we don't have to pay upfront. This helps reduce both the CapEx and OpEx. Some of those managed services help us to reduce the OpEx. On-demand computing efficiently manages the CapEx.

Amazon EC2 Container Service has multiple valuable features like load balancers and autoscalers. Amazon EC2 Container Service is easy to compute.

The existing domain-joined capability the solution provides during the initial boot-up of the compute should be streamlined and made a little robust. If that fails, you cannot do it again. That part doesn't have any resilience.

I have been using Amazon EC2 Container Service for three years.

I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service an eight out of ten for stability.

Amazon EC2 Container Service is a scalable solution. Around 200 users are using Amazon EC2 Container Service in our organization, and we do not plan to increase the usage.

I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service ten out of ten for scalability.

Amazon EC2 Container Service's technical support is very good.

Positive

The solution's initial setup is fairly easy and not that complex. I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service a nine out of ten for the ease of its initial setup.

The solution's deployment is very fast and takes around a minute. We follow the infrastructure as a whole, run our pipeline, and deploy the solution. One person can handle multiple deployments, even a thousand deployments.

On a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price, I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service’s pricing a four or five out of ten.

Amazon EC2 Container Service is deployed on the government AWS cloud.

Users can use Amazon EC2 Container Service for their computing. The robustness of the solution is good. And there are different pricing models, and users can evaluate them depending on the workload. The computing application needs must be evaluated before you choose the solution.

Overall, I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service an eight out of ten.

I use the solution in my company since the front end of my application is deployed on Amazon Elastic Container Service. The back end of the application was deployed on Amazon EC2 for microservices. The front-end and microservices, like shipments, inventories, and a few other areas, are deployed on Amazon Elastic Container Service.

First and foremost, my company uses AWS Fargate, which is easy to handle considering that it is taken care of by AWS, especially in areas like troubleshooting. Triggering a deployment manually is very simple with Amazon Elastic Container Service since, in our company, we have to go to the particular service, update the service manually, and check the box called force a new deployment, which would trigger a deployment on all the services. Even if the deployment has to be done manually, it is not a tedious task as it is easy. The product has a concept called task definition, which makes it easy to handle environment variables.

Though not an issue in the product, one of the areas of concern that I have noticed is related to how the tool works. After the load balancer gets attached to Amazon Elastic Container Service clusters, I can't modify, remove, or replace it later. The tool would have been better if there was an option to replace a load balancer. If anyone attaches a wrong load balancer during the creation phase, it has to be brought down and created once again from scratch.

I have been using Amazon Elastic Container Service for two and a half to three years. My company is a customer of Amazon.

It is a highly stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

In terms of scalability, the product has autoscaling features along with Amazon EKS, which helps scale up the resources in an organization. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

It is difficult for me to keep track of the number of users of the solution in my company because we have multiple groups in our organization who use it for integration purposes.

Earlier, the support team had some issues. Once or twice, I found a delay in the response time from the technical support's end due to a lack of resources or some other issues. Lately, I haven't experienced any issues with the product's support team since they have been very responsive.

I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

The product's initial setup phase requires some level of understanding. I can vouch for the fact that AWS provides good and detailed documentation. Users don't have to go anywhere to understand any concept related to the product, and all they need to do is follow AWS documentation line-by-line to become professional at whatever services they want to use.

Although AWS has successfully captured over 60 percent of the market in the cloud part, the tool is competitively way cheaper for the resources it provides compared to the other solutions.

The tool's scheduler enhances your application's scalability and reliability since, with AWS Fargate, during the scale-up process, if my company runs 50 or 70 tasks or services and in case of failures or any problems during the runtime, AWS responsibly takes care of the problematic area. All I need to do is to push the code while managing the application side. At an infrastructure level, things are managed by Amazon with AWS Fargate. I am very confident about the performance and reliability that the product offers since the infrastructure part is taken care of by AWS.

The security measures in the product that are the most effective stems from the fact that it provides separate policies to be attached to your clusters at a task execution role level, and if it is not made manually, then you won't be able to access ECS tasks through a command line, making it a highly secure area.

Amazon Elastic Container Service, with other AWS services, streamlines our company's workload since during the creation of a task definition, you need to mention the task execution role, which is nothing but an IAM role, which will provide the privileges and the permissions as to what is required at your end.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it.

To understand the initial stages can be easily understood by the user, it is good to go through its documentation and learn about the solution before buying the product. The struggle would be with the learning part and not the implementation part.

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.

The tool helps us with maneuverability. Its most valuable feature is autoscaling. 

Amazon EC2 Container Service needs to improve the menu design. It needs to improve deployment with better documentation. 

I have been using the product for five years. 

I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service's stability a nine out of ten. 

I rate the tool's scalability a nine out of ten. 

Amazon EC2 Container Service's deployment is complex. 

Amazon EC2 Container Service has helped us save time. 

The tool's cost is good. 

I rate Amazon EC2 Container Service a nine out of ten. 

The solution helps streamline the entire process for the development and production environments.

I use the tool to manage containerized applications. What I like about Amazon ECS is the interface it provides. Although the configurations can be extensive, such as setting up auto-scaling groups and configuring separate tasks and services for each application, the interface makes it manageable.

We are a small team. I'm the only one handling cloud deployments. We're talking about around 20 to 30 people, not more than a hundred.

I've contacted Amazon for this product, mainly for troubleshooting issues. However, I haven't reached out to them for anything else. The company's founder handles negotiations for pricing and other matters, so I'm not involved in that aspect.

Positive

The solution's deployment is easy since the steps are given in the documentation. I rate it an eight out of ten. It can be completed in a day. 

The tool initially required a significant amount of development time on the backend, but in terms of efficiency, it's a one-time effort. Once set up, it can be used for a long time, and maintenance doesn't require much effort. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

The product enables users to easily run and manage containers on scalable infrastructure.

Amazon ECS allows users to deploy and manage container applications like microservices or web applications on Amazon clusters. It's easy to install and designed for AWS targets, serving as a serverless container platform. It offers features such as automatic scanning, load balancing, and service discovery to help users manage their container applications.

Amazon ECS comprises components like task definition, which acts as a blueprint for applications, specifying details like the Docker image, CPU, and memory resources. Containers are lightweight, portable executable packages containing everything needed to run an application or service. It defines how containers should be managed, ensuring the desired number of tasks are running and automatically scaling based on demand.

The best thing about Amazon ECS is that it's a fully managed service. It offers scalability, high availability, cost-effective flexibility, and integration with other AWS services. Additionally, it provides some security features.

We noticed a problem where our container doesn't always run, and the traffic in our secured license exceeds 100%, leading to increased container costs. We are working to understand and reduce this traffic to control costs.

I have been working with the product for two years. 

Amazon ECS is used by seven users in my company. 

My company uses GKE and Amazon ECS. We chose the product as per client requirements. 

The tool's deployment is easy. 

Amazon ECS is expensive. 

In our company, the process for creating Amazon ECS services involves having a repository in it. If there's a need to edit variables or resources, we pull the repository to our local terminal, make the necessary edits, and push the changes back to the repository. Subsequently, we deploy using Jenkins. You can easily define the number of containers running in your cluster and manage them. Autoscaling and load balancing are handled automatically by AWS. 

We create clusters, which are logical groups of container systems where tasks can be placed. We can create clusters using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs. During the setup, we decide whether to use an ECS-optimized Amazon Machine Image for launching instances or create a launch configuration for an autoscaling group.

I rate the product a seven out of ten. 

We use Amazon Elastic Container Service to deploy containers.

The solution is easy to scale and implement and provides performance monitoring and management tools.

The more containers there are, the more expensive the solution becomes.

With Amazon Elastic Container Service, we lack full control over the infrastructure. Since it is a managed service for container orchestration, it may limit our control over certain infrastructure functions. This limitation can be a concern if you require deep control over your container or have specific infrastructure requirements.

I have been using Amazon Elastic Container Service for seven years.

Amazon Elastic Container Service is a stable solution.

Amazon Elastic Container Service is a scalable solution.

The technical support team is not knowledgeable enough to provide us with solutions everytime. The support team joins the call, but they provide solutions only six to seven out of ten times we contact them. They say they are unsure how to do it the rest of the time.

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

Since Amazon Elastic Container Service is a cloud-based solution, we do not need to handle the infrastructure, and it provides auto-scalable functionality.

Amazon Elastic Container Service is an expensive solution.

I recommend that users choose Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) instead of Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS).

Overall, I rate Amazon Elastic Container Service an eight out of ten.