AWS Fargate vs Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm: Who Wins the Battle of the Container Orchestration

August 31, 2021

AWS Fargate vs Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm: Who Wins the Battle of the Container Orchestration

Are you tired of manually managing containers and their deployments? If so, then container orchestration might be exactly what you need. Container orchestration helps automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. There are a few popular orchestration tools available, but which one is the best?

In this blog post, we will compare AWS Fargate, Kubernetes, and Docker Swarm and see which one wins the battle of container orchestration.

What is AWS Fargate?

AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers that enables you to run containers without having to manage the underlying compute infrastructure. Fargate is deeply integrated with Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform. It automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Kubernetes is highly extensible and supports a wide range of container runtimes such as Docker, containerd, and CRI-O.

What is Docker Swarm?

Docker Swarm is a native clustering and scheduling tool for Docker containers. It provides similar functionality to Kubernetes but integrates more natively with Docker.

Comparison: AWS Fargate vs Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm

Now that we know what each tool is let's dive into the comparison.

Architecture

AWS Fargate has a managed architecture since the underlying infrastructure is handled by AWS. Kubernetes and Docker Swarm are self-hosted, meaning you have to deploy and manage your own clusters.

Deployment

AWS Fargate makes deployment simple and can be done in minutes. Kubernetes and Docker Swarm require more advanced setup and knowledge and can take longer for initial deployment.

Scalability

All three tools can scale containers horizontally, but Kubernetes has an edge when it comes to vertical scaling. Kubernetes has more options for scaling, such as scaling based on CPU usage or network traffic.

Performance

All three tools have excellent performance, but Kubernetes and Docker Swarm are better suited for large-scale container deployments. AWS Fargate is better for small to medium-sized deployments since it is a managed service.

Community and Support

Kubernetes has the most extensive community support since it is open-source and has been around longer than the other two. Docker Swarm has a smaller community but is still widely used by developers. AWS Fargate has the least amount of community support since it is a proprietary service offered by AWS.

Who Wins the Battle of Container Orchestration?

It's hard to say which tool wins since it depends on your specific requirements. If you're looking for a managed service with easy deployment and don't want to handle the underlying infrastructure, then AWS Fargate is the best choice. If you're looking for a robust and flexible container orchestration tool, Kubernetes is the clear winner. Docker Swarm is a great option if you're already using Docker and want to keep things simple.

Conclusion

AWS Fargate, Kubernetes, and Docker Swarm are great container orchestration tools, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. By comparing the architecture, deployment, scalability, performance, and community support of each tool, you can determine which one is the best fit for your specific use case.

References

  1. AWS Fargate
  2. Kubernetes
  3. Docker Swarm

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