Containers and Serverless Recommendation Guide
Kubernetes on HAQM EC2 (“DIY K8s”)
Since you selected "I need to customized how the Kubernetes control plane is configured” we recommend Kubernetes on HAQM EC2 (“DIY K8s”) as the best place for you to start.
What is Kubernetes on HAQM EC2 (“DIY K8s”)?
Kubernetes is open-source software that allows you to deploy and manage containerized applications at scale. You can choose to manage Kubernetes infrastructure yourself with HAQM EC2 or get an automatically provisioned, managed Kubernetes control plane with HAQM EKS. Either way, you get powerful, community-backed integrations to AWS services like HAQM Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), and service discovery as well as the security, scalability, and high-availability of AWS. Self-managing Kubernetes requires extensive resources and knowledge and is not common among most organizations. The majority of the organizations tend to leave this burden to AWS and adopt HAQM EKS.
Why are we recommending Kubernetes on HAQM EC2 (“DIY K8s”)?
We strongly recommend against DIY K8s. Running Kubernetes on HAQM EC2 requires a dedicated developer team and resources. Most organizations would rather spend resources on innovating rather than maintaining so it’s recommended to consider HAQM EKS if you run Kubernetes rather than running Kubernetes yourself on HAQM EC2.
While this is our recommended starting point, other services could also suit your needs and you can always try a different service if your use case changes or if Kubernetes on HAQM EC2 (“DIY K8s”) does not seem optimal for your use case.

Frequently Asked Questions
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What type of app artifacts can you bring to the service?Kubernetes on EC2 allows you to bring container images (i.e., registry repo image)
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Where can you run your application outside of an AWS region?You can self-manage Kubernetes on EC2, Outposts, Bare metal, and/or any infrastructure.
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What class of applications does the product support?Kubernetes supports Front end services (html/JavaScript), Web services (request-response), Back-end workers (queues), Batch jobs, AI/ML, and Stateful services (databases).
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How does the product charge for usage?
Kubernetes is open source software that is available to everyone. If you plan on running Kubernetes on EC2, please visit HAQM EC2 Pricing.
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Is Kubernetes on HAQM EC2 (“DIY K8s”) a popular choice in the industry?No. Although there is flexibility permitted in a DIY approach, this choice is uncommon and generally not recommended for most organizations due to the complexity and resources required to self-manage Kubernetes.
Let's get started with Kubernetes on HAQM EC2 (“DIY K8s”)

Kubernetes on HAQM EC2
Using Kubernetes, you can run any type of containerized applications using the same toolset on-premises and in the cloud.

Get started with HAQM EC2
Secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload.

HAQM EC2 features
HAQM EC2 provides the broadest and deepest instance choice to match your workload’s needs.