What is Amazon ECR?
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) is a fully managed container registry that securely stores and manages Docker and OCI-compliant container images. ECR eliminates the need to operate your own registry infrastructure and provides high availability, security, and seamless integration with ECS, EKS, and Lambda.
Images are stored encrypted in S3 and automatically replicated across Availability Zones. ECR supports Image Lifecycle Policies for automatic cleanup of old images, reducing storage costs.
Core Features
- Private and Public Repositories: Secure private images or public distribution via ECR Public
- IAM Integration: Fine-grained access control with IAM policies
- Image Scanning: Automatic vulnerability analysis with Basic or Enhanced Scanning
- Lifecycle Policies: Automatic cleanup of old images based on rules
- Cross-Region Replication: Automatic replication to other regions
Typical Use Cases
CI/CD Pipelines: Integrate ECR into your build pipeline with CodeBuild, Jenkins, or GitHub Actions. With every build, images are automatically pushed and can be deployed directly to ECS or EKS.
Multi-Region Deployments: Use Cross-Region Replication to deploy images in regions close to your users. This reduces pull times and improves deployment speed.
Container Security: Enable Enhanced Scanning to check container images for vulnerabilities in OS packages and application dependencies. Integration with Security Hub enables central monitoring.
Benefits
- No registry infrastructure to manage
- Native integration with ECS, EKS, Fargate, and Lambda
- Automatic encryption and IAM-based access control
- Image Scanning detects vulnerabilities before deployment
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with Amazon ECR: CI/CD integration, lifecycle policy design, image scanning strategies, and multi-region deployment architectures.
Typical Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Amazon ECR?
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) is a fully managed container registry for Docker and OCI-compliant images. ECR securely stores your container images and provides fast deployment for ECS, EKS, and Lambda.
What is the difference between ECR and Docker Hub?
ECR is integrated with AWS, offers IAM-based access control, automatic encryption, and seamless integration with ECS and EKS. Docker Hub is platform-independent but without native AWS integration.
What is ECR Public?
ECR Public enables public sharing of container images without authentication. It's suitable for open-source projects and public tools. Private repositories remain available for internal images.
How does Image Scanning work?
ECR offers automatic vulnerability scanning for container images. Basic Scanning checks for known CVEs in OS packages. Enhanced Scanning with Amazon Inspector additionally checks application dependencies.