Autoscaling Amazon EKS with Karpenter: A Step-by-Step Guide

Karpenter is an open-source, dynamic capacity provisioner designed for Kubernetes clusters, which optimizes resource management by intelligently provisioning and scaling nodes in response to real-time application demands. Unlike traditional autoscaling solutions, Karpenter eliminates the need for pre-defined scaling policies, offering greater flexibility for dynamic workloads and supporting a diverse array of EC2 instance types, including cost-effective Spot Instances. Its ability to adapt to real-time demands ensures efficient resource allocation, minimizing both over-provisioning and under-provisioning. When integrated with Qovery, a DevOps automation platform, Karpenter simplifies application deployment and management on AWS EKS by automating infrastructure provisioning and scaling, leading to potential cost savings of up to 60% through optimized use of Spot Instances. This integration not only reduces operational overhead but also ensures that applications maintain peak performance without unnecessary resource allocation, making it ideal for organizations aiming to maximize cloud budget efficiency.