Comparing Amazon EC2 vs ECS: A Friendly, In-Depth Guide

Hey there! Maybe you‘re evaluating different compute options on AWS. Or perhaps your boss just gave you a vague order to "figure out this whole EC2 and ECS thing." Either way, you‘ve come to the right place!

In this detailed but easily digestible guide, we‘ll explore:

• What EC2 and ECS actually are under the hood
• When to choose one over the other
• Key factors to compare like scaling, security, integrations and more
• How to optimize spending by matching workloads to the right service

By the end, you‘ll have all the nitty gritty details needed to make an informed decision for YOUR specific use case. Sound good? Let‘s get started!

Introducing EC2 and ECS

First, the basics – EC2 = Elastic Compute Cloud. This is AWS-speak for scalable virtual machines. EC2 lets you rent virtualized servers on demand.

ECS = Elastic Container Service. Unlike virtual machines, ECS helps coordinate containers. Containers package applications into lightweight, isolated units.

So in simple terms:

• EC2 = Virtual machines
• ECS = Container orchestration

With EC2 you provision infrastructure like VMs. ECS focuses on deployment and operation of containerized microservices apps. Understood? Great!

Now that we‘ve got that covered, let‘s move on to the good stuff…

Comparing Scalability and Elasticity

One area folks tend to get tripped up on is scalability. What‘s better – EC2 auto scaling groups or ECS services?

With EC2, scaling out means launching new VM instances. These instances run in isolation from one another. If one crashes, your app goes down with it!

ECS scales by launching copies of containers. These containers share resources and awareness of each other. If there‘s issues, containers get rescheduled automatically!

To visualize how this plays out:

---------------------     ---------------------
| EC2 Instance 1 |     | ECS Container 1 | 
---------------------     ---------------------
     |      |                | | | | |  
     |      |           ---------------------  
(crash!)     |          | ECS Container 2 |
           ---------------------          | | | | |
            | ECS Instance 1 |         ---------------------
---------------------        | ECS Container 3 |    
| EC2 Instance 2 |        ---------------------
---------------------

See the difference? With ECS, you don‘t really worry about individual instances. The containers and cluster schedule things automatically!

Now for elasticity – adapting to spikes and drops in demand. Both EC2 and ECS offer auto-scaling capabilities here.

But with EC2, there is latency when launching new VMs. And your app must support scale OUT across instances.

ECS simply piles on more containers rapidly to handle extra load. Much faster and seamless!

Comparing Management Models

Okay, get ready for me to drop some knowledge here!

There‘s a crucial difference between EC2 and ECS in HOW they are managed:

EC2 is infrastructure as a service (IaaS). So YOU keep systems up to date, tune performance, architect for high availability and all that. It‘s flexible but more work!

ECS is container as a service (CaaS). ECS handles more of the operational burden. You just define containers and let AWS sweat the details. More automated!

Here‘s a handy comparison chart:

So in summary – EC2 offers control while ECS simplifies operations through abstraction. Choose your flavor!

Comparing Use Cases

With the basics covered, which service should you use when? Let‘s talk about good fits:

👉 EC2 is great for:

• Custom enterprise apps
• Legacy systems or database hosting
• Apps that require special OS, libraries, hardware
• Workloads predictable enough to utilize Reserved Instances

👉 ECS shines for:

• Microservices and container-based applications
• Highly scalable processing of variable workloads
• Queue/event-driven architectures
• Apps aligned to CI/CD culture

My rule of thumb? Use containers and ECS for your customer-facing apps whenever viable. Stick traditional systems on EC2 if you must!

Oh and by the way…you CAN use EC2 and ECS together! More on that in a bit.

First, let‘s take a quick intermission to soak up some sweet, sweet visual knowledge!

Now let‘s step things up a notch, shall we? On to cost, security and integration comparisons!

Comparing Cost Models

As they say, money talks! Let‘s break down the pricing structures:

With EC2, you pay fixed hourly or per second rates depending on the VM size + extras like data transfer. Reserved Instances offer discounted rates with a commitment. Overall super predictable.

ECS pricing involves a bit more line items – container instance hours, tasks executed, load balancing costs etc. More variables but allows very thin, optimized provisioning!

In general I‘d say this:

• EC2 for steady, fixed workloads
• ECS for spiky, unpredictable ones

Combine that with intelligent auto-scaling, and you‘ve got yourself some sweet cost optimization!

Onto other considerations like integrations and security…

Comparing Ecosystem Integrations

Unless you live under a rock, you know AWS offers a gazillion other services. Do EC2 and ECS play nice with them?

In short – yes! Though ECS provides richer integration in some cases. Let me explain…

For example, with storage, EC2 offers EBS volumes. ECS natively integrates with elastic file systems and S3 storage for containers.

For messaging, EC2 can leverage SQS and SNS easily. ECS has direct awareness of related container tasks, making coordination simpler.

And don‘t get me started on services like EKS and Fargate purpose built for container ops…

So while EC2 can tie into many AWS services just fine, ECS brings added context and automation possibilities.

Now for the all important topic of security…

Comparing Security, IAM and Compliance

Considering running regulated or sensitive workloads? You‘ll want to pay attention here!

First, EC2 and ECS leverage very similar authentication mechanisms like IAM roles, security groups and VPCs. Nothing shocking.

However, containers add additional concerns around images, registry access and Kubernetes RBAC that traditional VMs don‘t deal with.

So if meeting strict compliance is critical – payment card data, healthcare records etc – EC2 may provide better isolation guarantees out the box.

But for modern infrastructure, BOTH can be hardened safely:

• Lock down VPC endpoints
• Audit container image provenance
• Restrict IAM permissions granularly
• Enable cloud trail logging fully

So if you cross your t‘s and dot your i‘s, either service can satisfy infosec teams comfortably. Just be diligent!

Alright, we‘ve covered a TON of ground comparing EC2 and ECS services. Let‘s drive things home…

When Should You Use EC2 vs ECS?

We‘ve talked technical trade offs until we‘re blue in the face! But you might still be wondering…

"What‘s the straightforward takeaway here? When should I use ECS versus EC2?"

First, remember you can use BOTH together!

But here‘s my simple decision framework:

👉 Pick EC2 when you need:

• Infrastructure customizability and control
• Ability to isolate workloads completely
• Licensing restrictions force use of VMs

👉 Choose ECS for:

• Fast scaling, resilient container orchestration
• Quickly evolving microservices applications
• Integrating many complementary AWS services

If you‘re still unsure, here‘s my patented EC2 vs ECS decision flowchart!

How‘s THAT for definitive guidance, heh? 😉

Anyway, that wraps up this whirlwind tour comparing EC2 and ECS! Hopefully you feel well equipped to determine what‘s best for YOUR use case now.

Shoot me any parting questions below! I‘m happy to chatContainers more…