Four ways to run EKS-flavoured Kubernetes, from AWS-managed to your own hardware.

Newer features let you buy more control-plane capacity, or bring your own machines under an EKS control plane.

Standard EKS

AWS-run control plane that scales automatically; nodes in your AWS VPC. The default for most teams.

Provisioned control plane

Pick a capacity tier for the API and scheduler for predictable performance at very large or bursty scale, such as big AI jobs. Higher price.

EKS Hybrid Nodes

Your on-premises or edge machines join an EKS cluster as nodes, billed per vCPU-hour, with the control plane in AWS.

EKS Anywhere

AWS's Kubernetes distribution that you run yourself on your hardware. Closer to kubeadm or RKE2 in ownership.

Shopwave's choice

Standard EKS for orders and loyalty in eu-west-1. Warehouses stay on k3s managed by Rancher (Deck 4). Hybrid Nodes is on the review list if the warehouses get reliable links.

Verify before you commit

These offerings are newer and evolving. Confirm availability, regions, network requirements and pricing in the current AWS documentation.

Beyond the standard cluster: provisioned control plane, hybrid nodes, EKS Anywhere

Most teams use standard EKS, where AWS scales the control plane automatically. For very large or bursty clusters, such as massive AI training or high-churn batch platforms, EKS offers a provisioned control plane: you choose a capacity tier for the API server and scheduler so that performance is predictable, at a higher price.

EKS Hybrid Nodes extends the model to machines you own. Your on-premises or edge servers join an EKS cluster as worker nodes, with the control plane operated by AWS, and you pay per vCPU-hour for those nodes. This reduces the operational burden compared with running your own control plane but requires reliable network connectivity to AWS and certain network prerequisites.

EKS Anywhere is different: it is an AWS-supported Kubernetes distribution that you install and operate on your own infrastructure, with no AWS control plane. Ownership is closer to kubeadm or RKE2, which Deck 4 covers along with Rancher.

These are fast-moving products. Treat the descriptions here as the shape of each option and check the current documentation for supported regions, prerequisites and pricing before designing around them.