Real-World Kubernetes/EKS Deployment Architectures (End-to-End Guide)

If you’re building or operating microservices on Kubernetes (especially EKS), one of the biggest architectural decisions is: Where do application code, Helm charts, and deployment configurations live — and how do they flow to production? In real production environments, two models dominate: 1. Model 1 — Same Repo (Service-Owned Deployments) 2. Model 2 — Hybrid GitOps (Platform-Driven) This guide explains both end-to-end: repositories, ECR usage, CI/CD, versioning, folder structures, deployment flow, and when to use each. Model 1 — App + Helm in the SAME Repository Each microservice owns everything needed to run it. One repo per service contains: Application source code Dockerfile Helm chart Environment values CI/CD pipeline Deployment is usually CI-driven (not pure GitOps) Typical Repository Structure payment-service/ ├── src/ # Application source code │ ├── main.py / index.js / App.java │ ├── config/ │ └── modules/ │ ├── tests/ # Unit & integration tests │ ├── unit/ │ └── integration/