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Amazon has launched a hosted relational database service Amazon RDS, offering a hosted MySQL database with the full capabilities and access rights as a normal on premises database.

Unlike completely elastic hosted DB services, which abstract a large-scale cluster into a shared environment for customers, the Amazon model steps up or down through tiers of service based on requirements and with tiers of pricing accordingly. Because Amazon RDS provides a fully featured MySQL 5.1 database, any code, applications, and tools that developers use today with their existing MySQL databases will work with the new Amazon offering.

“Many customers have told us that their applications require a relational database,” said Adam Selipsky, Vice President, Amazon Web Services. ”That’s why we built Amazon RDS, which combines a familiar relational database with automated management and the instant scalability of the AWS Cloud." 

Cleaning up the muck

Amazon CTO Werner Vogels said there are many advantages to the 'database in the Cloud' approach. “The service takes much of the hassle out of setting up and managing relational databases, such as backups and code patching, freeing up its users to focus on their applications and business,” he noted. “Amazon RDS handles all the "muck" of relational database management freeing up its users to focus on their applications and business.

“Structured data management systems are traditionally served by relational databases but these sophisticated systems have their limitations, especially when it comes to scale and reliability. Often they also require tremendous expertise to operate efficiently and reliably especially when scaling up. Of course, a significant portion of the structured data world does not require RDBMS features such as complex transactions and relations, and can be served by a simpler, much more agile system.

“Quite a few of our AWS customers are running relational databases, either because they require the specific relational functionality or because they are using software packages that have been designed with RDBMS as the database solution. These customers typically spend a significant amount of time in database management.

“Indeed, for many of these customers database management is yet another form of "muck": the tremendous amount of work they have to do that doesn't differentiate them and prevents that from focusing more on delivering value with their product. For these customers who require a relational database but do not have a need to exert complete administrative control over their database server, there is now another option: the Amazon Relational Database Service."

Database options

There are a number of options for subscribers to the new offering:

• Amazon RDS for when the application requires a relational database but you want to reduce the time you spend on database management, Amazon RDS allows you to manage your database compute and storage resources with a simple API call, and only pay for the infrastructure resources they actually consume.

• Amazon EC2- Relational Database AMIs for when the application require the use of a particular relational database and/or when the customer wants to exert complete administrative control over their database. Available AMIs include IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Sybase, and Vertica.

• Amazon SimpleDB for applications that do not require a relational model, and that principally demand index and query capabilities. Amazon SimpleDB eliminates the administrative overhead of running a highly-available production database, and is unbound by the strict requirements of a RDBMS.