Understanding how AWS Nitro impacts container performance
When we think about Windows containers, the last thing that comes to mind is the hardware under the hood that powers the container. However, the combination of the hypervisor, hardware, and software directly affects the network packet flow, network jitter, latency, memory buffer, connections per second, and processing performance within the Windows container.
AWS has built a system called the AWS Nitro System from scratch—a combination of a hypervisor, built-purpose hardware, and software that provides unmatched performance. The AWS Nitro System is divided into five components:
- The Nitro Hypervisor
- Nitro Cards
- The Nitro Security Chip
- Nitro Trusted Platform Module (Nitro TPM) 2.0
- Nitro Enclaves
We’ll focus only on the most impactful components for Windows containers: the Nitro Hypervisor and Nitro Cards.
The Nitro Hypervisor is a Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)-based lightweight...
