Soumyadeep Mandal

Posted on May 15, 2023 • Originally published at linkedin.com

Migrate Your Legacy Apps To AWS Serverless Containers Using ECS & Fargate

#aws #containers #serverless #webdev

Many legacy applications are still running on traditional servers or virtual machines, which can be costly, complex, and inefficient to manage. AWS has a great solution for migrating these legacy apps to the cloud with their Serverless Containers and Elastic Container Service (ECS).

In this article, I'll talk about the benefits of using serverless containers and ECS and give a step-by-step guide for migrating your legacy applications to AWS's serverless containers with ECS and Fargate.

What are serverless containers?

Serverless containers are a way of running containerized applications without having to provision, manage, or scale any servers. You only pay for the resources you use and you don't have to worry about the underlying infrastructure.

AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine that enables enterprises to run containerized apps without having to worry about server administration. Fargate works with both Amazon ECS and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), which are AWS services for managing container orchestration.

Amazon ECS is a service that runs containers on a cluster of servers, which can be either managed by AWS or by the developer. Amazon EKS is a service that runs containers on a cluster of servers that run Kubernetes, an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

Why use serverless containers?

Serverless containers offer several benefits over traditional servers or virtual machines, such as:

Cost savings: You only pay for the resources you consume, not for idle capacity. You also save on operational costs such as patching, upgrading, and monitoring servers.
Performance: You get faster application deployment and scaling, as well as improved resource utilization and availability.
Agility: You can focus on developing and delivering value to your customers, rather than managing infrastructure. You can also leverage the rich ecosystem of AWS services and tools to enhance your applications.
Security: You get workload isolation by design, as each container runs in its own dedicated runtime environment. You also get access to AWS security features such as encryption, identity management, and compliance.

How to migrate your legacy apps to serverless containers?

Migrating your legacy apps to serverless containers on AWS can be done in four steps:

Assess your application portfolio: Identify which applications are suitable for migration to serverless containers. Some factors to consider are the application architecture, dependencies, performance requirements, and compatibility with container technologies.
Containerize your applications: Convert your applications into container images that can run on any platform that supports Docker. You can use tools such as Docker Desktop, AWS CodeBuild, or AWS App2Container to help you with this process.
Deploy your applications to AWS: Choose whether you want to use Amazon ECS or Amazon EKS for managing your container clusters. Then, use AWS Fargate to run your containers without any server provisioning or management. You can use tools such as AWS CloudFormation, AWS CDK, or AWS Copilot CLI to help you with this process.
Optimize your applications for serverless: Once your applications are running on serverless containers, you can optimize them for performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency. You can use tools such as Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights, AWS X-Ray, or AWS Compute Optimizer to help you with this process.

Conclusion

Migrating your legacy apps to serverless containers on AWS can help you achieve significant cost savings, better performance, and increased agility. With AWS Fargate, you can run your containerized apps without any server administration. With Amazon ECS or Amazon EKS, you can manage your container orchestration with ease.
If you are looking for a way to modernize your legacy applications and improve their performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency, you should consider migrating them to AWS serverless containers.

Are you curious about the details of this topic? Then you should check out my article on LinkedIn. It will show you how to leverage the power of serverless containers for your projects. You will be amazed by how easy and efficient they are. Don't miss this opportunity to learn something new and exciting. Follow the link and share your feedback with me.