Advanced AWS: Platforms, Containers, and AI/ML

Advanced AWS: Platforms, Containers, and AI/ML

Higher-level AWS services trade low-level control for managed operations. Elastic Beanstalk orchestrates application environments, ECS schedules containers with AWS-native constructs, EKS provides managed Kubernetes control planes, and SageMaker AI supports model development and deployment.

Core ideas

• Elastic Beanstalk creates underlying resources while offering application-version and environment workflows.
• ECS services maintain desired task count and can run on EC2 capacity or AWS Fargate.
• EKS is appropriate when Kubernetes APIs, ecosystem, and portability justify its operational complexity.
• SageMaker AI combines data, training, model registry, deployment, monitoring, and governance capabilities.

Design and operating model

Choose the simplest platform satisfying portability, scaling, networking, security, and team-skill requirements. Package immutable artifacts, use workload roles, automate infrastructure and deployment, add health checks and rollback, and isolate training data or model access according to sensitivity.

Example

Resources:
  Cluster:
    Type: AWS::ECS::Cluster
  TaskDefinition:
    Type: AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition
    Properties:
      RequiresCompatibilities: [FARGATE]
      NetworkMode: awsvpc
      Cpu: '256'
      Memory: '512'
      ContainerDefinitions:
        - Name: api
          Image: public.ecr.aws/docker/library/nginx:1.27-alpine
          PortMappings: [{ ContainerPort: 80 }]

Run examples in a disposable training account and replace Regions, identifiers, policies, resource sizes, and names with reviewed values. Verify commands with the current AWS CLI and service documentation before production use.

Production guidance

• Do not choose Kubernetes merely because it is popular; price its platform and staffing cost.
• Secure the software and ML supply chains with signed artifacts, scanning, provenance, and controlled registries.
• Treat models as production artifacts with evaluation, versioning, monitoring, rollback, and responsible-use review.

The chapter quiz follows the lesson and checks both service vocabulary and architecture decisions.