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DirectoryCloud InfrastructureContainers & KubernetesAmazon Elastic Kubernetes Service Distro (Amazon EKS-D)

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service Distro (Amazon EKS-D)

About Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service Distro (Amazon EKS-D)

Amazon EKS Distro is an open-source distribution of Kubernetes that allows users to perform reproducible builds using the same source code and tooling as Amazon EKS, deploy on self-provisioned infrastructure, and receive security patches and extended support.

How to evaluate Containers & Kubernetes

This is how the CIOPages Research Team evaluates this category. It is not an assessment of Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service Distro (Amazon EKS-D). It comes from our Kubernetes Platforms buyer guide.

25%
Control Plane & Day-2 Lifecycle
Managed vs. self-managed control plane and its SLA; how Kubernetes version upgrades roll (in-place, surge, blue-green) and how disruptive they are to running pods; long-term-support version options; CVE patch cadence and how quickly fixes reach the fleet; automated node remediation and certificate rotation
20%
Fleet & Multi-Cluster Management
Single console and API to govern many clusters across clouds, on-prem, and edge; declarative cluster lifecycle and config (Cluster API or equivalent); fleet-wide policy and drift detection; zero-touch provisioning for edge; whether it manages clusters it did not create (imported/attached) or only its own
20%
Security & Compliance
Default-deny posture and admission control (Pod Security, OPA/Kyverno); image scanning and signing in the supply chain; RBAC plus OIDC/enterprise-identity integration; network policy and microsegmentation; CIS-benchmark conformance, audit logging, and FedRAMP/FIPS coverage where regulated
15%
Networking, Storage & Service Mesh
CNI options and how locked-in the default is; ingress and gateway controllers with TLS, rate-limiting, and WAF; CSI drivers for block/file/object and stateful-workload maturity; service mesh integration (Istio, Linkerd, Cilium); cross-cluster connectivity and load balancing
10%
Developer Experience & Self-Service
Namespace and cluster self-service vs. ticket-based provisioning; GitOps support (Argo CD, Flux) as a first-class workflow; developer portal and golden-path integration (Backstage or built-in console); IDE plugins and local-dev parity; how opinionated the platform is about how teams ship
10%
Cost, Portability & Commercial Model
Licensing unit (per-core, per-node, per-cluster, consumption) and how it scales with you; control-plane and extended-support fees; realistic exit cost and how provider-shaped the abstractions are; GPU/AI scheduling support; ecosystem breadth (operators, Helm, marketplace) and how much you must self-integrate

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Quick Facts

aws.amazon.com/eks/eks-distro
CategoryCloud Infrastructure
SubcategoryContainers & Kubernetes

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