Skip to content

PCF vs AWS

Service Model

Aspect PCF AWS
Level PaaS IaaS
Abstraction Applications Infrastructure
Deployment cf push CloudFormation, Terraform
Scaling Automatic, app-aware EC2 ASG, ECS, Fargate
Networking Routes + Gorouter VPC, Security Groups, ALB

Application Deployment

AWS Approach

Source → Build (CodeBuild) → Image (ECR) → Provision (EC2/ECS) → Deploy → Run 1. Manage Docker image 2. Manage container registry 3. Manage orchestration 4. Manage networking

PCF Approach

Source → Push → Buildpack → Build → Run (Routing automatic) 1. Buildpack handles images 2. Platform manages registry 3. Platform orchestrates 4. Routing automatic

Services

RDS (AWS)

```bash

Manual steps

  1. Create RDS instance
  2. Configure security group
  3. Create database
  4. Get connection string
  5. Set in app environment
  6. Manage backup, patching

In code

const dbUrl = process.env.DB_URL; ```

Service Brokers (PCF)

```bash

Automated

$ cf create-service postgresql free my-db $ cf bind-service my-app my-db

Credentials injected automatically

const dbUrl = process.env.DATABASE_URL; ```

Scaling

AWS

```bash

Setup ASG

  1. Create launch template
  2. Create ASG
  3. Set min/max instances
  4. Configure metrics
  5. Set scaling policies
  6. Monitor CloudWatch

Manual scaling

aws autoscaling set-desired-capacity --auto-scaling-group-name my-asg --desired-capacity 5 ```

PCF

```bash

Simple commands

cf scale my-app -i 5 # Immediate cf create-autoscaler-policy ... # Metric-based cf attach-asg-autoscaler-policy my-app policy.json ```

Cost Model

AWS

Per-usage billing: - EC2: $0.10/hour per instance - RDS: $0.15/hour per database - Data transfer: $0.10/GB - Storage: $0.05/GB

Advantages: - Pay only for what you use - Scale down to zero (serverless) - Cost optimization options (spot instances)

PCF

Subscription-based: - Foundation license: $X/month - Cost per GB-memory: included - Unlimited scaling included

Advantages: - Predictable costs - No per-instance charges - Scaling included

Learning Curve

AWS

  • Extensive (VPC, IAM, RDS, EC2, networking)
  • 6-12 months to proficiency
  • Many services to learn

PCF

  • Moderate (apps, services, scaling)
  • 1-2 months to proficiency
  • Fewer concepts to master

When to Choose

Choose PCF if:

  • Developer velocity is priority
  • Team doesn't have DevOps expertise
  • Want PaaS simplicity
  • Multi-cloud strategy
  • Internal platform requirement

Choose AWS if:

  • Need specific AWS services
  • Infrastructure customization needed
  • Existing AWS investment
  • Cost optimization critical
  • Specialized compute needs

Hybrid Approach

Use both:

``` AWS: - Hosting infrastructure - Managed services (RDS, S3, etc.) - Networking setup

PCF: - Application deployment - Service integration - Developer platform ```

See Comparison Matrix for detailed feature comparison.