Deployment Overview
Agent Kernel is a multi-cloud AI agent runtime that supports multiple deployment modes across AWS and Azure for different use cases.
Deployment Modes
Quick Comparison
| Mode | Best For | Scalability | Cold Start | Cost | Fault Tolerance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local/CLI | Development, testing | N/A | Instant | Free | Manual restart |
| REST API | Web apps, APIs | Manual scaling | Instant | Server costs | Manual |
| AWS Lambda | Variable load (AWS) | Auto-scaling | 1-3s | Pay per use | High - Auto-retry, multi-AZ |
| AWS ECS | Consistent load (AWS) | Auto-scaling | Instant | Running containers | Very High - Multi-AZ, auto-recovery |
| Azure Functions | Variable load (Azure) | Auto-scaling | 1-3s | Pay per use | High - Auto-retry, multi-region |
| Azure Container Apps | Consistent load (Azure) | Auto-scaling | Instant | Running containers | Very High - Multi-zone, auto-recovery |
| MCP Server | AI integrations | Manual | Instant | Server costs | Manual |
| A2A Server | Agent networks | Manual | Instant | Server costs | Manual |
Local Development
Uses agentkernel.CLI module.
python my_agent.py
- Interactive CLI
- Instant feedback
- No deployment needed
REST API Server
Uses agentkernel.RESAPI module.
python my_agent.py
- HTTP endpoints
- Easy integration
- Self-hosted
AWS Serverless
Uses Agent Kernel terraform modules
# Configure the modules and run
terraform init && terraform apply
- Lambda functions
- API Gateway
- Auto-scaling
- Pay per request
AWS Containerized
Uses Agent Kernel terraform modules
# Configure the modules and run
terraform init && terraform apply
- ECS Fargate
- Application Load Balancer
- Consistent performance
- Lower latency
Azure Serverless
Uses Agent Kernel terraform modules
# Configure the modules and run
terraform init && terraform apply
- Azure Functions
- API Management
- Auto-scaling
- Pay per request
Azure Containerized
Uses Agent Kernel terraform modules
# Configure the modules and run
terraform init && terraform apply
- Azure Container Apps
- Azure Front Door / App Gateway
- Consistent performance
- Lower latency
Choosing a Deployment Mode
Development
→ Local/CLI: Fast iteration, no setup
Small Web App
→ REST API: Simple, self-hosted
Variable Traffic on AWS
→ AWS Lambda: Auto-scales, pay per use
High Traffic on AWS
→ AWS ECS: Consistent performance
Variable Traffic on Azure
→ Azure Functions: Auto-scales, pay per use
High Traffic on Azure
→ Azure Container Apps: Consistent performance, KEDA-based scaling
AI Integration
→ MCP/A2A: Protocol-based integration
Multi-Cloud Strategy
Agent Kernel's multi-cloud support enables you to:
- Deploy the same agent code to AWS or Azure without modification
- Avoid vendor lock-in - switch clouds or run on multiple clouds
- Optimize costs - choose the best pricing model for each workload
- Geographic redundancy - distribute across cloud providers
- Leverage cloud-specific services - use the best of both platforms
Fault Tolerance Considerations
Agent Kernel provides different levels of fault tolerance depending on your deployment mode:
Production-Grade Fault Tolerance
AWS ECS/Fargate offers the highest level of fault tolerance on AWS:
- Multi-AZ task distribution for zone-level failures
- Automatic task replacement on failures
- Health check-based routing
- Configurable auto-scaling
- Rolling deployments with zero downtime
- Application Load Balancer with health monitoring
Learn more about AWS ECS fault tolerance →
Azure Container Apps offers the highest level of fault tolerance on Azure:
- Multi-zone replica distribution for zone-level failures
- Automatic replica replacement on failures
- Health check-based routing
- KEDA-based auto-scaling
- Rolling deployments with zero downtime
- Built-in ingress with health monitoring
Learn more about Azure Container Apps fault tolerance →
AWS Lambda provides built-in fault tolerance:
- Serverless architecture with automatic scaling
- Multi-AZ execution by default
- Automatic retry on failures
- No infrastructure management
- Inherently resilient to hardware failures
Learn more about AWS serverless fault tolerance →
Azure Functions provides built-in fault tolerance:
- Serverless architecture with automatic scaling
- Multi-region execution capabilities
- Automatic retry on failures
- No infrastructure management
- Inherently resilient to hardware failures
Learn more about Azure serverless fault tolerance →
State Persistence
All production deployment modes support resilient state management:
AWS Options:
- DynamoDB: Multi-AZ replication, automatic backups, 99.999% SLA
- Redis: Cluster mode with automatic failover, replication
Azure Options:
- Cosmos DB: Multi-region replication, automatic backups, 99.999% SLA
- Azure Cache for Redis: Cluster mode with automatic failover, replication
Learn more about fault tolerance →
Next Steps
- Local Deployment
- AWS Deployments:
- Azure Deployments:
- Fault Tolerance
- Configuration