For many agencies, Docker provides developers with a platform that frees them to focus on their applications right from the start without worrying about infrastructure configuration and dependencies.
Once the application is created, however, there’s still the issue of providing the application to its intended audience with priority on performance, security and resilience. In many cases, there’s some wrangling with hosting infrastructure to ensure it matches up with the requirements of the application. Once this is resolved, there’s the need to create a code deployment pipeline to the infrastructure, which again can involve complexities.
Historically Docker hosting solutions required a substantial amount of server management expertise, requiring in-house server administration experience to ensure smooth running, proper patching, provisioning and scaling.
This is where AWS Fargate steps in.
AWS Fargate is a serverless Docker hosting platform which not only substantially simplifies the deployment of Docker images to production infrastructure but also improves performance, enhances security and provides cost-effective enterprise hosting.
We work with UK agencies as an AWS infrastructure specialist, and for many Docker-focused workflows, a managed Fargate solution can be a great fit and substantially reduce the time it takes an application to go from development to staging and onto production. Some of the benefits of a Fargate Docker hosting solution are as follows:
Easy Deployments
There are a variety of ways to deploy your Docker application to AWS Fargate. One method is to use AWS CodeBuild to build a Docker image which is then sent to AWS ECR. Builds can be set to automatically trigger based on event hooks in GitHub. Although this sounds fairly complex, in reality, these are relatively simple steps and once configured the deployment pipeline is in place for the long term making future deployments to staging and production environments as simple as doing a push to your application repository.
Simplified Infrastructure Management
Our systems administrators are able to manage tasks such as server provisioning, patching and scaling by utilising AWS Fargate tools, significantly reducing the server management overhead required to host Docker containers. Agencies no longer need to have production docker hosting expertise in-house to ensure their hosted docker containers perform, scale as required and are properly patched.
The result is a vastly reduced total cost of ownership of developing in and hosting Docker containers.
Improved Performance
AWS Fargate provides improved performance compared to traditional Docker container hosting. Fargate can use the latest Graviton 2 hardware and leading network technology to run containers, providing customers with the fastest and most efficient environment for their Docker containers.
This improved performance can result in faster application response times and improved user experiences.
Enhanced Security
AWS Fargate also provides enhanced security compared to traditional Docker container hosting. It includes all the standard AWS security features our team uses on a daily basis when managing AWS infrastructure.
Services such as VPCs, security groups, and IAM policies can all be used, with Fargate providing excellent AWS security features as standard.
Additionally, Fargate also provides automatic security updates, further enhancing the security of hosted Docker containers.
Cost-Effective
With Fargate, customers only pay for the resources they use, including CPU and memory. Scaling limits can be set as required to control costs and then charges are based on resource utilisation within those limits. This usually means a low-traffic application can be hosted in a very cost-effective way. Additionally, Fargate all but eliminates the need for server management and maintenance, which reduces the overall cost of managed Fargate hosting solutions.
Integration with Other AWS Services
Seamless integration with other AWS services provides customers with a complete solution for their Docker container needs. With Fargate, customers can take advantage of AWS services such as Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and Amazon SNS, among others. The ability to use services such as Amazon’s Relational Database Service with the clustering and scalability features of AWS Fargate Docker hosting means the potential and scale of the platform are virtually limitless, determined by client requirements, not infrastructure limits.
AWS Fargate is undoubtedly a powerful and versatile solution for hosting Docker containers. With its simplified Docker application deployments, infrastructure management, improved performance, enhanced security, cost-effectiveness and integration with other AWS services. Fargate’s ability to automate much of the infrastructure management, along with its flexibility and scalability, makes it a popular choice for many organisations looking to deploy container-based applications in the cloud. No matter the size of your agency, AWS Fargate provides the necessary tools and capabilities to help you manage and scale your container-based workloads with ease.
Our managed AWS Fargate hosting is the ideal solution for Docker-focused agencies looking to work with an AWS infrastructure specialist so that they can focus on their applications. Get in touch with your Docker hosting requirements to learn more about what we can offer.