Introducing the AWS EKS best practices Mindmap

#kubernetes #aws #eks #devops

A Visual guide to secure, scalable, and cost-optimized Kubernetes on AWS

Managing Kubernetes on AWS can be complex, but with the right practices, it becomes an excellent platform to run and deploy modern applications. Inspired by William Quiles’ renowned security mindmaps, I’ve created an AWS EKS Best Practices Mindmap that brings together the most useful strategies for security, scalability, networking, and cost optimization—all in one visual guide.

This mindmap is designed to help engineers, architects, and platform teams simplify EKS operations while maintaining security, reliability, and efficiency.

AWS EKS best practices mindmap overview

The mindmap covers the following key areas:

1. Security & compliance

Protecting your EKS clusters is a must. This section focuses on:

Risk assessment & mitigation: Identify and reduce risks without compromising business value.
IAM & RBAC best practices: Control access at every level.
Data protection: Encrypt data in transit and at rest.
Continuous monitoring: Use AWS-native tools like GuardDuty and Security Hub.

2. Reliability

Reliability ensures your applications run smoothly. Best practices include:

Applications: Design for resilience and fault tolerance.
Control plane: Leverage AWS-managed control plane for stability.
Data plane: Keep worker nodes updated and healthy.

3. Cluster autoscaling

Scaling is key to cost and performance optimization. The mindmap highlights three approaches:

Karpenter:

An open-source tool that automates node provisioning and deprovisioning based on pod requirements. It supports flexible instance types and advanced scheduling constraints.
Cluster Autoscaler:

A Kubernetes-native solution that adjusts node counts by monitoring unschedulable pods and underutilized nodes. Integrated with AWS Auto Scaling Groups.
EKS Auto mode:

A fully managed scaling solution by AWS. It provisions nodes automatically using Bottlerocket AMIs and integrates load balancer controllers, pod identity, and security features—reducing operational overhead.

4. Networking

Understanding Kubernetes networking is essential for cluster efficiency:

Pod networking: EKS uses the VPC CNI plugin for native AWS VPC integration.
Underlay mode: Pods and nodes share the same network layer for consistent IP addressing.
Configurable options: VPC CNI supports multiple operating modes and advanced configurations for scalability and security.

5. Scalability

Maximize the work a single EKS cluster can handle:

Use one large cluster for reduced operational overhead (with trade-offs for multi-region and isolation).
Optimize resource allocation and scheduling for high performance.

6. Cluster upgrades

Keep your clusters up-to-date:

Control Plane: AWS manages upgrades, but you initiate them.
Data Plane: Upgrade worker nodes (self-managed, managed node groups, Karpenter, or Fargate) to match the control plane version.

7. Cost optimization

Achieve business goals at the lowest cost:

Right-sizing: Monitor CPU and memory usage with CloudWatch Container Insights.
Flexible purchasing: Use On-Demand, Spot, and Savings Plans.
Continuous optimization: Regularly review workloads for efficiency.