Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora

What This Service Solves

RDS manages relational database engines. Aurora is AWS-designed relational database technology with managed replication and high-performance options.

• Use RDS/Aurora when relational integrity, SQL, transactions, and existing engine compatibility matter.

When You Should Not Use It

• Avoid relational databases for massive key-value access patterns that fit DynamoDB better, or object storage problems that fit S3.

What AWS Manages and What You Manage

AWS manages database infrastructure, backups, patching options, and Multi-AZ mechanisms. You manage schema, queries, indexes, parameter groups, access, and scaling choices.

Security Implications

Use private subnets, security groups, encryption, IAM auth where supported, Secrets Manager, and least-privilege database users.

Availability and Scaling

Multi-AZ improves failover availability. Read replicas primarily scale reads and can support DR, but they are not the same feature.

Scale vertically, add read replicas, use Aurora replicas, or redesign access patterns. Storage autoscaling helps capacity, not poor queries.

Cost Behavior

Instance size, storage, I/O, backups, replicas, licensing, and cross-Region transfer drive cost.

Common Integrations

• Secrets Manager
• CloudWatch
• Performance Insights
• DMS
• Lambda

How AWS Might Present It

Certification-Specific Depth

Related Comparisons

Sources and Review Metadata

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