Amazon EKS Anywhere

What it is

Amazon EKS Anywhere is container management software, built by AWS, for creating and running Kubernetes clusters on your own infrastructure, On-premisesIn data centers or offices that you run yourself, rather than in the cloud. Hybrid architectures connect on-premises systems to AWS, for example through AWS Direct Connect or a VPN.Glossary entry or at the edge. It is built on Amazon EKS Distro, the same Kubernetes distribution that Amazon EKS uses, so clusters behave consistently with EKS in AWS.

Unlike Amazon EKS, EKS Anywhere is customer-managed: the Kubernetes control plane runs on your infrastructure, and you are responsible for cluster lifecycle, maintenance, and capacity. EKS Anywhere automates the work of creating, upgrading, and scaling clusters.

Choose it when Kubernetes must run in your own data center or at the edge, especially where a connection to AWS is unreliable or not allowed at all.

Concepts and features

Supported infrastructure: VMware vSphere, bare metal, Nutanix, Apache CloudStack, and AWS Snow (Snowball Edge) devices. Snowball Edge is no longer available to new customers (see the Snow Family tutorial), so Snow clusters are for existing devices only; for new edge computing, AWS points to AWS Outposts.
Disconnected operation: clusters can run without a connection to the AWS Cloud, including in air-gapped environments. When connected, they can optionally use AWS services such as IAM authentication and CloudWatch Logs.
Cluster lifecycle: the eksctl anywhere command-line tool creates, upgrades, and deletes clusters, built on the open-source Cluster API (Application programming interface)A defined way for one program to ask another for data or actions, such as a set of HTTPS requests and responses. Every AWS service is controlled through its API, which the console, the CLI, and the SDKs call for you.Glossary entry.
Curated packages: a curated set of add-on packages for common cluster needs.
EKS console: the EKS Connector agent registers clusters with the Amazon EKS console, so you can view them alongside your EKS clusters.

Security, resilience, performance, and cost

Security

You secure the infrastructure, the network, and access to the clusters, because they run in your environment.
Use standard Kubernetes RBAC (Role-based access control)Granting permissions to roles, such as administrator or developer, and giving people the roles they need, instead of granting permissions to each person. IAM roles and IAM Identity Center permission sets follow this model.Glossary entry; when connected, IAM authentication is available.

Resilience

The control plane runs on your hardware, so its availability depends on how many control plane machines you run and how your infrastructure handles failures. Run several control plane and worker nodes across failure domains.
Clusters keep running if the connection to AWS is lost, because nothing in the cluster depends on it.

Performance

Workloads run next to local data and devices, with performance determined by your own hardware.

Cost

The EKS Anywhere software is free and open source.
Support comes from an optional EKS Anywhere Enterprise Subscription, licensed per cluster for a 1-year or 3-year term. It requires an AWS Enterprise Support plan (or Enterprise On-Ramp, which AWS discontinues on January 1, 2027, upgrading its customers to Enterprise Support during 2026).
You also pay for your own hardware and its operation.

Monitoring

Use Kubernetes-native tools or, when connected, CloudWatch Logs; view clusters in the EKS console with the EKS Connector.

EKS Anywhere or another option?

If the requirement is	Choose
Kubernetes on our own infrastructure, possibly disconnected or air-gapped	Amazon EKS Anywhere
On-premises servers as nodes of an EKS cluster, with the control plane in AWS and a reliable connection	Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes
Containers on our own servers with ECS, managed from AWS	Amazon ECS Anywhere
AWS-managed hardware in our data center, running EKS	AWS Outposts with Amazon EKS
Only the Kubernetes distribution, with no tooling or support	Amazon EKS Distro

Reverse mindmap: when the question points here

Is it EKS Anywhere?

Yes, when the question says
- Kubernetes in our own data center, consistent with EKS leads to EKS Anywhere
- Kubernetes in an air-gapped site leads to EKS Anywhere
- Kubernetes on vSphere, bare metal, or Nutanix leads to EKS Anywhere
- Kubernetes on existing Snowball Edge devices leads to EKS Anywhere on AWS Snow
Know how it is run
- Who manages the control plane leads to You do, on your infrastructure
- See on-premises clusters in the EKS console leads to EKS Connector
- AWS support for the clusters leads to EKS Anywhere Enterprise Subscription
No, when the question says
- On-premises nodes, control plane in AWS leads to EKS Hybrid Nodes
- ECS tasks on our servers leads to ECS Anywhere
- Kubernetes on AWS Outposts leads to Amazon EKS on Outposts

Key takeaways

EKS Anywhere runs Kubernetes on your own infrastructure using EKS Distro, the same distribution as Amazon EKS.
It is customer-managed: you run the control plane and the infrastructure.
It supports vSphere, bare metal, Nutanix, CloudStack, and Snow (Snowball Edge is closed to new customers), and can run disconnected or air-gapped.
The software is free; support is an optional per-cluster Enterprise Subscription, which requires Enterprise Support.
With a reliable connection and the control plane in AWS, consider EKS Hybrid Nodes instead.