What is AWS Fargate?
AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers. You define CPU and memory for your containers, and AWS handles server provisioning, patching, and scaling. Fargate works with ECS and EKS and enables running containers without infrastructure management.
Core Features
- Serverless Containers: No EC2 instances to manage or patch
- Task-Level Isolation: Each task runs in its own compute environment
- Per-Second Billing: Pay only for actual runtime
- Integration with ECS and EKS: Same APIs and tooling as EC2-based compute
- Spot Capacity: Fargate Spot for up to 70% savings off the regular Fargate price on interruptible workloads (currently Linux on x86/ARM)
Typical Use Cases
Microservices with Variable Load: Fargate scales tasks automatically without capacity planning. Ideal for workloads with unpredictable load spikes.
CI/CD Pipelines: Build containers start on demand and terminate after completion. No idle costs for build servers.
Batch Processing: Process jobs without dedicated batch infrastructure. Fargate Spot reduces costs for fault-tolerant processing.
Benefits
- No server management: AWS handles patching and scaling
- Fast deployment: Containers start in under 60 seconds
- Improved security: Task-level isolation and no shared infrastructure
- Simple pricing: Pay per vCPU-second and memory-second
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with AWS Fargate: container architecture, migration from EC2 to Fargate, cost optimization between Fargate and EC2, and best practices for serverless container deployments.
Typical Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Fargate and EC2?
With Fargate, AWS fully manages the underlying infrastructure. With EC2, you have full control over servers but must handle patching and scaling yourself.
Does Fargate work with ECS and EKS?
Yes, Fargate is a launch type option for both services. You can run ECS Tasks or EKS Pods on Fargate without managing EC2 instances.
How much more expensive is Fargate than EC2?
Fargate is typically more expensive per vCPU/GB-hour than comparable on-demand EC2 capacity, since it eliminates the operational overhead of server management. The exact premium depends on instance type and utilization; Fargate Spot significantly reduces costs for interruptible workloads.
What resource limits does Fargate have?
Fargate Tasks support up to 16 vCPU and 120 GB memory. For larger workloads, you need to use EC2.
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