What are AWS containers?
AWS containers provide portable, isolated environments for packaging applications and their dependencies, allowing them to run consistently across various computing environments.
At their core, AWS containers encapsulate application code and runtime, system tools, dependencies, and settings that enable apps to operate the same way across multiple environments. In contrast to virtual machines (VMs), which have their own operating systems, containers share their host OS kernel. This makes containers lightweight with less bootstrap time.
AWS containers also facilitate fast development, scalability, and increased flexibility when developing microservices architecture and cloud-native applications. For the large market segment already using Amazon's cloud services, AWS containers represent a natural container services solution.
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AWS container services: ECS vs EKS
As a cloud provider, Amazon offers two main services that let you run or orchestrate containerized workloads: Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).
ECS is a fully managed solution that provides a secure, scalable, and reliable way to orchestrate containers. Within ECS, users can run containers using AWS Fargate or EC2. AWS Fargate gives users a fully managed solution to run their containerized workloads, while EC2 gives you control over the underlying infrastructure.
EKS is also a fully managed service, but it allows users to run containerized workloads on Kubernetes.
In short:
ECS: Fully managed, easier integration with AWS services.
EKS: Kubernetes-based, better for users who need more flexibility and control.
If you’re looking for a managed service with better integration with other AWS services, choose ECS. But if you want more control, flexibility, and the benefit of the Kubernetes ecosystem, then go with EKS.
Working with container images in AWS
Container images form the foundation of your AWS container deployments. A container image provides all the essentials your containers need to run on their shared host OS kernels, including:
Files
Binaries
Libraries
Dependencies
Configuration settings
Container images are generated from preconfigured templates called base images, which make it easy to deploy containers as needed and export them to multiple environments.
Amazon offers Elastic Container Registry (ECR) for managing the storage and encryption of container images. ECR stores images in a compressed format and lets users share them securely via an HTTPS connection.
As a best practice, build containers from base images provided by trusted container registries that optimize configurations, scan images for vulnerabilities, sign them for authenticity, and maintain patch updates.
Keep your images secure by applying least-privilege principle permissions, integrated CI/CD pipeline security checks, and strong network security policies.
What is container orchestration?
With the rise in microservices architecture, the development and deployment of scalable containerized apps have grown extensively. In a distributed system, multiple containers need to be managed, scaled, and orchestrated with minimum human intervention. Performing these tasks manually, like in a production environment, is cumbersome and error-prone.
In response, container orchestration platforms started emerging that offered automated solutions to deploy and manage containers at scale. Some of the most important features included service discovery, rolling deployments, automatic load balancing, and autoscaling. But it was Google’s 2014 release of the open-source Kubernetes project that really shaped how modern container orchestration platforms work.
Today, platforms such as Docker Swarm, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, and Kubernetes are widely used by organizations for container orchestration. These solutions streamline and efficiently run production workloads across single or multiple cloud-native environments.
Amazon elastic container service (ECS) as a container orchestration tool
Amazon ECS is the native container orchestration platform for AWS. Aside from its smooth integration with other AWS services, some key features include:
Managed clusters: As a managed service, ECS simplifies the handling of containers by abstracting the underlying infrastructure. It can automatically provision and scale clusters depending on the running workload.
Task definition: ECS uses a declarative way of specifying container configurations, network settings, and resource requirements, usually in a YAML format. These definitions act as a blueprint and enable ECS to maintain a desired state according to the specified configuration, ensuring consistency and reliability.
Service definition: A service is a higher-level construct that allows users to run and maintain a desired number of task instances simultaneously. To define a service, you need to specify the task definition, the desired number of tasks, configurations for deployment strategies, load balancing, autoscaling, etc.
Security: Amazon ECS integrates identity and access management (IAM) to provide a fine-grained access control mechanism for secured container operations and data protection.
AWS service integration: As noted, ECS enjoys effortless integration with other AWS services including Elastic Load Balancing, AWS CloudFormation, Amazon IAM, and Amazon CloudWatch. This enables a comprehensive container orchestration and monitoring solution within your AWS ecosystem.
How Kubernetes helps with container orchestration
Kubernetes is an open-source platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containers. It’s cloud-agnostic, meaning it can run containers across different environments—whether that’s in the cloud, on-premises, or both. Here’s why it’s such a game-changer for containerized apps:
Rolling Updates & Rollbacks: You can update your apps without downtime. If something goes wrong, Kubernetes automatically rolls back to the last stable version, keeping things smooth.
Health Checks: Kubernetes keeps an eye on your containers, making sure they’re healthy. If something goes wrong, it’ll restart them so everything keeps running as expected.
Load Balancing: It automatically balances traffic between containers, so your app stays responsive and performs well under load.
Storage Orchestration: For stateful apps, Kubernetes makes sure data is preserved even when containers restart, so you don’t lose anything important.
Extensibility: Kubernetes plays well with a huge ecosystem of tools and third-party add-ons, making it super flexible and customizable.
Kubernetes is built for managing containers at scale, giving you the flexibility and reliability you need when working in complex, multi-environment setups.
Container runtime and security
To run containers, you need a container runtime, which is responsible for the execution and management of containers on the host operating system. It is primarily responsible for:
Creating and executing the container images in isolation
Pulling and storing images from a registry
Managing the container lifecycle
Networking
Security and monitoring
Some examples of popular container runtimes are Docker Engine, containerd, CRI-O, Rocket, and crun.
Container runtime security is critical in production environments, where both the runtime and images may be vulnerable to attacks.. Although not an exhaustive list, some common security concerns for container runtime are highlighted below.
Kernel vulnerabilities: Containers share the host OS kernel, so a vulnerability in one container can potentially compromise others running on the same kernel.
Image vulnerabilities: Container images may contain vulnerable dependencies that can be exploited during runtime, compromising other containers.
Insecure configuration: Misconfigured access controls or using root users increases the attack surface, allowing hackers to gain unauthorized access or disrupt applications.
To mitigate these challenges, it’s crucial to:
Keep runtime and associated components updated with the latest security patches.
Implement security tools and best practices like container security scanning, runtime monitoring, vulnerability management, and access control mechanisms.
Best practices for AWS container security and optimization
To improve your AWS container security and efficiency, follow these best practices:
Security best practices
To protect your containers from unauthorized access and malware, adopt strong access control and image security measures:
Use AWS identity and access management (IAM) security features, which let you define roles and policies ranging from guardrails with broad permissions to fine-tuned access for workloads.
Implement least-privilege access for containerized workloads, granting roles only the necessary permissions to perform required tasks.
Only use container images from authoritative repositories that follow security best practices such as scanning and signing, and scan container images for vulnerabilities before deployment.
Performance and cost optimization
Maximize your container efficiency and cost-efficiency by leveraging Amazon service, usage, and pricing options:
Choose the right AWS service for your workload requirements, based on factors such as whether you need fully managed services or infrastructure control and whether you require Kubernetes support.
Use AWS Auto Scaling, which monitors your applications and automatically adjusts capacity to balance performance with cost.
Manage costs by leveraging long-term discount AWS Savings Plans such as Compute Savings Plans and EC2 Instance Savings Plans and alternative pricing models such as EC2 Spot Instances.
AWS services for enhancing container runtime security
There are several solutions for monitoring container runtime security within the AWS ecosystem:
ECS security groups: Like every other service in AWS, ECS allows users to define strict groups to control inbound and outbound traffic to the container instances.
EKS network policies: EKS facilitates Kubernetes NetworkPolicies, which enable users to define fine-grained access and network control for pods and services. This lets you isolate container workloads and reduce the potential attack surface.
Amazon ECR image scanning: When users push container images to the registry, ECR automatically scans them for vulnerabilities and security issues. You can also integrate scanning as a part of your continuous integration (CI) pipeline to review images before they’re pushed to the registry.
Amazon ECR image lifecycle policies: ECR can periodically scan older unused images and automatically clean them. Implementing such policies helps reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities due to outdated or unpatched container images.
AWS IAM access control: By leveraging IAM, users can enforce the principle of least privilege to restrict permissions to containerized workloads, thus limiting the scope of unauthorized access and potential security breaches.
By leveraging the above solutions, you can enhance the cloud security posture of your container runtimes within the AWS environment, mitigating risks and ensuring the integrity of your containerized workloads.
Future trends and considerations
The landscape of container security and orchestration in AWS has been continuously evolving over the years, and will continue to change in these areas:
Automated Security: AWS will enhance automation in container security with tools like Amazon ECR for image scanning and Fargate for patching, reducing manual intervention and improving overall security.
Runtime Protection: Integration of AWS security tools like CloudTrail, GuardDuty, and Security Hub into container workloads will improve anomaly detection and incident response.
Service Mesh & Microservices Security: Expect stronger security around microservices with AWS App Mesh, offering better access control, encryption, and communication management between containers.
Immutable Infrastructure: AWS will continue to promote immutable infrastructure, with services like CodePipeline and CodeDeploy ensuring containers are replaced, not updated, to minimize vulnerabilities.
Zero Trust & IAM Integration: AWS will deepen Zero Trust security and fine-grained IAM roles, particularly for containers running in EKS and ECS, ensuring tighter access controls.
Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Security: AWS will improve container security across multi-cloud and hybrid environments with Outposts and EKS Anywhere, providing consistent security policies across infrastructure.
AI-Driven Security: AI and machine learning tools, like GuardDuty and Macie, will play a larger role in detecting vulnerabilities, anomalies, and sensitive data within container workloads.
DevSecOps Automation: AWS will further integrate security into DevOps pipelines with CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and ECR, automating vulnerability scanning and compliance checks.
Enhance your AWS container security strategy with Wiz
Containers are an inevitable part of modern cloud-native microservice architecture, and AWS offers multiple solutions to deploy and run containerized workloads, including Elastic Container Service and Elastic Kubernetes Service. These container orchestration platforms provide a control plane to run multiple container instances parallelly in a distributed environment. But to keep your platform healthy and secure, it’s essential that you also implement proper container security best practices and detect vulnerabilities as early as possible.
Led by an experienced and visionary team, Wiz helps users secure their container runtime in cloud environments, not only for AWS but also other cloud providers such as Google Cloud Platform, Azure, and Linode. Solutions like Wiz Runtime Sensor detect threats in real-time for containerized workloads.
Learn more about Wiz’s cross-cloud container and Kubernetes security to identify and prevent attacks in your cloud environment.
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