{"id":48725,"date":"2025-03-12T01:18:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T01:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/?p=48725"},"modified":"2026-02-21T07:26:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:26:49","slug":"aws-tutorials-types-of-eks-deployment-in-aws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/aws-tutorials-types-of-eks-deployment-in-aws\/","title":{"rendered":"AWS Tutorials: Types of EKS deployment in AWS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screenshot-2025-03-12-at-9.58.10%E2%80%AFAM-1024x530.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-48726\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>EKS Standard:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Control Plane:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>AWS manages the Kubernetes control plane.<sup>1<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Worker Nodes:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You manage the worker nodes (EC2 instances).<sup>2<\/sup> This gives you maximum control over the underlying infrastructure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You can use EKS Managed Node Groups for some automation, or manage them entirely yourself.<sup>3<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Use Cases:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ideal for applications requiring fine-grained control over EC2 instances.<sup>4<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Suitable for stateful applications and workloads with specific hardware requirements.<sup>5<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>EKS Fargate:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Control Plane:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>AWS manages the Kubernetes control plane.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Worker Nodes:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>AWS manages the underlying infrastructure.<sup>6<\/sup> You deploy pods, and Fargate provisions the necessary compute resources.<sup>7<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Serverless operation: you don&#8217;t manage EC2 instances.<sup>8<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Use Cases:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Best for stateless, event-driven, and serverless applications.<sup>9<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Simplifies operations by eliminating the need to manage worker nodes.<sup>10<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>EKS Anywhere:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Control Plane &amp; Worker Nodes:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You manage the Kubernetes cluster on your own on-premises infrastructure.<sup>11<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extends EKS to your data centers, providing a consistent Kubernetes experience.<sup>12<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Use Cases:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For organizations with on-premises infrastructure or hybrid cloud requirements.<sup>13<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enables consistent Kubernetes deployments across different environments.<sup>14<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>EKS Auto Mode:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Control Plane:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This mode is designed to further automate the management of the EKS control plane.<sup>15<\/sup> It aims to reduce the operational burden of managing the control plane.<sup>16<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Worker Nodes:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Worker nodes are still managed either by the user, or by managed node groups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Use Cases:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Designed to simplify EKS operations.<sup>17<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Useful for those who want to reduce the amount of interaction they have with the control plane of their EKS clusters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is designed to make EKS more hands off.<sup>18<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Differences Summarized:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Infrastructure Management:<\/strong> The primary difference lies in who manages the worker nodes. EKS Standard gives you full control, Fargate eliminates node management, and EKS Anywhere lets you manage clusters on-premises.<sup>19<\/sup> EKS Auto mode, focuses on automating the control plane.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Serverless vs. Managed:<\/strong> Fargate is a serverless option, while EKS Standard and EKS Anywhere involve managing infrastructure.<sup>20<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>On-Premises vs. Cloud:<\/strong> EKS Anywhere extends EKS to on-premises environments.<sup>21<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the <strong>corrected<\/strong> and <strong>updated comparison<\/strong> of <strong>EKS Standard, EKS Fargate, EKS Anywhere, and EKS Auto Mode<\/strong> as of <strong>March 2026<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Major Differences Between EKS Standard, EKS Fargate, EKS Anywhere, and EKS Auto Mode<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Feature<\/th><th><strong>EKS Standard<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>EKS Fargate<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>EKS Anywhere<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>EKS Auto Mode<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Deployment Model<\/strong><\/td><td>Managed control plane with EC2-based worker nodes<\/td><td>Serverless Kubernetes pods running on Fargate<\/td><td>Self-managed Kubernetes clusters on on-premises infrastructure<\/td><td>Fully managed Kubernetes cluster with simplified infrastructure setup<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Node Management<\/strong><\/td><td>Users provision and manage EC2 instances as worker nodes<\/td><td>No node management, Fargate provisions compute resources automatically<\/td><td>Users manage physical\/virtual nodes on their own infrastructure<\/td><td>AWS manages the cluster, but users must provide an existing VPC<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Control Plane<\/strong><\/td><td>AWS-managed control plane<\/td><td>AWS-managed control plane<\/td><td>Self-managed control plane<\/td><td>Fully managed by AWS<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Worker Nodes<\/strong><\/td><td>EC2 instances (managed by users)<\/td><td>No worker nodes, only Fargate pods<\/td><td>Self-managed nodes (bare metal, VMs, cloud)<\/td><td>Managed by AWS, automatically optimized<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Use Case<\/strong><\/td><td>Workloads requiring full control over EC2-based compute and networking<\/td><td>Serverless Kubernetes for lightweight and auto-scaling workloads<\/td><td>Hybrid cloud, on-premises Kubernetes deployments<\/td><td>Users who want to run Kubernetes without managing infrastructure<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Cost Model<\/strong><\/td><td>Pay for EC2 instances + control plane separately<\/td><td>Pay per pod running on Fargate (no EC2 costs)<\/td><td>Costs depend on on-prem infrastructure; AWS charges EKS Anywhere licensing fees<\/td><td>Pay only for running workloads, infrastructure cost is included<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Scaling<\/strong><\/td><td>User-defined scaling using EC2 ASG<\/td><td>Autoscaling based on Fargate pods<\/td><td>Scaling depends on on-premises capacity and user configurations<\/td><td>Fully automated scaling, AWS optimizes resources dynamically<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Networking<\/strong><\/td><td>Requires VPC setup and security group configuration<\/td><td>Uses AWS VPC with automatic networking<\/td><td>User-managed networking based on on-premises setup<\/td><td>Requires an <strong>existing<\/strong> VPC (AWS does not create it)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Security &amp; IAM<\/strong><\/td><td>Users configure IAM roles, security groups, and network policies manually<\/td><td>AWS manages IAM roles per pod and provides pod-level isolation<\/td><td>Self-managed security, integrates with on-prem security controls<\/td><td>AWS <strong>manages IAM roles and security<\/strong> at the Kubernetes level but <strong>does not configure VPC security<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Storage<\/strong><\/td><td>Supports EBS, EFS, FSx, and custom storage<\/td><td>Integrates with AWS storage but has some limitations on persistent volumes<\/td><td>User-managed storage solutions<\/td><td>AWS auto-configures storage, but users must define storage classes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Maintenance &amp; Updates<\/strong><\/td><td>Users responsible for cluster upgrades and node patching<\/td><td>AWS maintains infrastructure updates, users handle Kubernetes updates<\/td><td>Self-managed; updates and patches controlled by users<\/td><td>Fully managed, AWS handles all updates and patches<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Integration<\/strong><\/td><td>Works with EC2, ALB, ASG, IAM, and other AWS services<\/td><td>Deep integration with AWS services but limited workload flexibility<\/td><td>Works with on-prem infrastructure and edge computing<\/td><td>Fully integrated with AWS services, but less customizable<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Customizability<\/strong><\/td><td>High\u2014users choose instance types, storage, networking, etc.<\/td><td>Low\u2014AWS handles everything<\/td><td>High\u2014tailored for on-premises needs<\/td><td>Limited\u2014AWS optimizes everything for ease of use<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Operational Overhead<\/strong><\/td><td>Medium\u2014users manage EC2 nodes, networking, and updates<\/td><td>Low\u2014no node management, AWS handles infra<\/td><td>High\u2014users handle everything (network, nodes, security)<\/td><td>Very Low\u2014AWS fully manages Kubernetes and scaling<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Takeaways (March 2026 Updates)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>EKS Standard<\/strong> \u2192 <strong>Best for users needing full control<\/strong> over compute, networking, and security.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>EKS Fargate<\/strong> \u2192 <strong>Best for serverless Kubernetes<\/strong>, where users don\u2019t want to manage EC2 instances.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>EKS Anywhere<\/strong> \u2192 <strong>Best for hybrid and on-prem Kubernetes<\/strong>, allowing full infrastructure control.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>EKS Auto Mode<\/strong> \u2192 <strong>Best for users wanting fully managed Kubernetes<\/strong>, but requires <strong>an existing VPC<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EKS Standard: EKS Fargate: EKS Anywhere: EKS Auto Mode: Key Differences Summarized: Here\u2019s the corrected and updated comparison of EKS Standard, EKS Fargate, EKS Anywhere, and EKS Auto Mode as&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58920,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48725\/revisions\/58920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}