Core concept
ECS Task Definition (JSON) + Service + Cluster. IAM per task. Fargate or EC2 launch types. AWS-native experience.
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How it works
EKS: AWS manages control plane ($0.10/hr). You manage worker nodes (EC2/Fargate). Standard Kubernetes API. HPA, VPA, Karpenter.
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Trade-offs + gotchas
ECS: AWS-only, small team, quick delivery. EKS: multi-cloud, existing K8s expertise, ecosystem tools (Helm, ArgoCD, Istio).