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Discussion on: I'm a senior "DevOps" consultant in the Midwest, Ask Me Anything!

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taragrg6 profile image
taragurung

what do we need to orchestrate the docker containers when we can simply have instance running in auto-scaling group.

What are the advantages of having it.?

Can you give me one real time example of why and when to use AWS ECS?
Is it a good idea to run stateful application in AWS ECS? How can we achieve if yes?

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bovermyer profile image
Ben Overmyer

The answer to most of that is "it depends."

Docker containers cycle much faster than virtual machines, so it's easier to scale up and down to meet demand. They are, however, more complex to deal with in an orchestrated fashion.

AWS ECS is... not ready yet. Don't use it. Instead, build a Docker Swarm cluster on EC2 and use it alongside your VMs until you're ready to cut over to pure Docker.

To get back to my original answer, whether you move to Docker or not is going to depend on a number of factors. "What is best for the business?" should be your guiding question.