As AWS Architects, we face this pivotal decision on nearly every project: should we deploy our applications using containers through Amazon ECS/EKS or go serverless with AWS Lambda? This is more than a technical choice—it's a strategic decision that impacts development workflow, operational overhead, scalability, and cost structure.
In this guide, I'll walk through the practical considerations that should drive your decision-making, provide real-world use cases for each approach, and explain when a hybrid architecture might give you the best of both worlds.
Understanding Your AWS Deployment Options
Before diving into specific scenarios, let's briefly clarify what we're comparing:
Serverless: AWS Lambda is the cornerstone of serverless computing on AWS—a fully managed compute service that runs your code in response to events without requiring server provisioning or management.
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