AWS EKS Auto Mode with Qovery - Valuable Or Not?

At Qovery, we are closely following the development of EKS Auto Mode, a new feature from AWS designed to simplify Kubernetes management by automating various foundational components. While we recognize the effort AWS has put into this, our initial evaluation shows that EKS Auto Mode is still in its early stages and does not yet offer sufficient value to be a strong consideration for our users.

Pierre Mavro

Pierre Mavro

December 19, 2024 · 2 min read
AWS EKS Auto Mode with Qovery - Valuable Or Not? - Qovery

#Why EKS Auto Mode Doesn’t Yet Fit for Qovery Users

Qovery already provides a comprehensive solution that covers (and often exceeds) the benefits offered by EKS Auto Mode. Features like compute autoscaling, GPU support, and load balancing are already handled seamlessly by our platform. For instance, Qovery has supported compute autoscaling and GPU workloads through Karpenter for over a year, and it’s worth noting that EKS Auto Mode itself relies on Karpenter for these capabilities.

Our existing Qovery Engine automates the setup, scaling, upgrades, and management of EKS clusters for our users, ensuring they experience minimal operational overhead. As a result, the introduction of EKS Auto Mode brings only a minor direct impact to our users, as they already benefit from equivalent or superior functionality provided by Qovery.

#Potential Value for Qovery’s Operations

While EKS Auto Mode does not significantly enhance the user experience for our customers at this time, it could help reduce the internal effort required to maintain EKS clusters. Even though this process is already fully automated by Qovery, having AWS take responsibility for more aspects of cluster management is a promising direction. This could allow us to focus on delivering even more advanced features and optimizations for our users.

From a user perspective, there is no difference between EKS and EKS Auto Mode with Qovery
From a user perspective, there is no difference between EKS and EKS Auto Mode with Qovery

#The Road Ahead for EKS Auto Mode and Qovery

Our philosophy is to support all official Kubernetes distributions from major cloud providers, including AWS, GCP, and Azure. While we are excited about AWS’s efforts to bridge the gap with offerings like GKE Autopilot, we believe EKS Auto Mode needs to mature further before it becomes a viable option for Qovery users. We plan to officially support EKS Auto Mode in the future, but only once it demonstrates clear and tangible value for our customers.

#Final Thoughts

We commend AWS for introducing EKS Auto Mode, which fills a notable gap compared to offerings from GCP (Qovery has supported GKE Autopilot for 1 year now, and it's amazing). It’s a step in the right direction, and we are eager to see how this feature evolves over time. At Qovery, our commitment remains unchanged: to provide our users with the best tools and experiences, regardless of their Kubernetes infrastructure. EKS Auto Mode holds promise, but for now, the Qovery Engine continues to deliver unmatched value and operational simplicity for classic EKS management.

We look forward to keeping you updated as we continue to evaluate EKS Auto Mode and explore how it can further enhance our platform.

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