Deployment options - Amazon EKS
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Deployment options

You can use Amazon EKS with any, or all, of the following deployment options:

  • Amazon EKS – Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) is a managed service that you can use to run Kubernetes on Amazon without needing to install, operate, and maintain your own Kubernetes control plane or nodes. For more information, see What is Amazon EKS?.

  • Amazon EKS on Amazon Outposts – Amazon Outposts enables native Amazon Web Services, infrastructure, and operating models in your on-premises facilities. With Amazon EKS on Amazon Outposts, you can choose to run extended or local clusters. With extended clusters, the Kubernetes control plane runs in an Amazon Web Services Region, and the nodes run on Amazon Outposts. With local clusters, the entire Kubernetes cluster runs locally on Outposts, including both the Kubernetes control plane and nodes. For more information, see Amazon EKS on Amazon Outposts.

  • Amazon EKS Anywhere – Amazon EKS Anywhere is a deployment option for Amazon EKS that enables you to easily create and operate Kubernetes clusters on-premises. Both Amazon EKS and Amazon EKS Anywhere are built on the Amazon EKS Distro. To learn more about Amazon EKS Anywhere, and its differences with Amazon EKS, see Overview and Comparing Amazon EKS Anywhere to Amazon EKS in the Amazon EKS Anywhere documentation.

  • Amazon EKS Distro – Amazon EKS Distro is a distribution of the same open-source Kubernetes software and dependencies deployed by Amazon EKS in the cloud. Amazon EKS Distro follows the same Kubernetes version release cycle as Amazon EKS and is provided as an open-source project. To learn more, see Amazon EKS Distro. You can also view and download the source code for the Amazon EKS Distro on GitHub.

When choosing which deployment options to use for your Kubernetes cluster, consider the following:

Feature Amazon EKS Amazon EKS on Amazon Outposts Amazon EKS Anywhere Amazon EKS Distro
Hardware Amazon-supplied Amazon-supplied Supplied by you Supplied by you
Deployment location Amazon cloud Your data center Your data center Your data center
Kubernetes control plane location Amazon cloud Amazon cloud or your data center Your data center Your data center
Kubernetes data plane location Amazon cloud Your data center Your data center Your data center
Support Amazon support Amazon support Amazon support OSS community support
Frequently asked questions

  • Q: Can I deploy Amazon EKS Anywhere in the Amazon cloud?

    A: Amazon EKS Anywhere isn't designed to run in the Amazon cloud. It doesn't integrate with the Kubernetes Cluster API Provider for Amazon. If you plan to deploy Kubernetes clusters in the Amazon cloud, we strongly recommend that you use Amazon EKS.

  • Q: Can I deploy Amazon EKS Anywhere on Amazon Outposts?

    A: Amazon EKS Anywhere isn't designed to run on Amazon Outposts. If you're planning to deploy Kubernetes clusters on Amazon Outposts, we strongly recommend that you use Amazon EKS on Amazon Outposts.