How to Speed Up Amazon ECS Container Deployments

Deployments on Amazon ECS can become sluggish due to several factors, such as the need to re-download large Docker images from the ECR repository, which varies based on application size and dependencies, and the time it takes for new task instances to pass health checks and replace older ones. Default settings for load balancer health checks and connection draining can also contribute to the delay, but tuning these parameters can significantly reduce latency. Large Docker images, especially in Fargate tasks that do not cache images, can slow down deployments, and using thinner base images or limiting data written to the container layer can help. Adjusting ECS service configuration options, like the minimumHealthyPercent and maximumPercent, can also speed up the process. While ECS is suitable for smaller projects, as organizations grow, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) might be a more powerful option for scaling, though it is complex to manage. Solutions like Qovery can streamline EKS deployments, offering a balance of power and simplicity.