Amazon RDS

Features

It is a relational database that supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle Database, SQL Server as well as Amazon Aurora

Its a fully managed service offering from Amazon that falls under PaaS category, so it handles provisioning, patching, backup and recovery. It provides both general purpose SSD and provisioned IOPS SSD drive. Because it is a PaaS offering, it is basically a DB application/service on an EC2 instance in a particular VPC.

Deployment: The deployment is supported in multiple availability zones. Users can easily launch a relational database instance in RDS. AWS manages the provisioning of hardware, database setup, patching, and backups, reducing administrative overhead.

Amazon's own RDS: Amazon Aurora is a MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible relational database built for the cloud that combines performance of traditional enterprise databases with simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases.

Database Engines: RDS supports multiple database engines, allowing users to choose the one that best suits their application requirements.

Scaling: RDS provides options for vertical and horizontal scaling to accommodate growing workloads. Users can resize instances or create read replicas for improved performance and availability.

Automated Backups: RDS automated database backups, making it simple to recover data in case of failures or user errors. Users can also set up automated snapshots for data retention.

Security: RDS offers robust security features, including network isolation, encryption at rest and in transit, and integration with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for fine-grained access control.

Monitoring and Metrics: AWS CloudWatch integration allows users to monitor database performance and set up alarms for proactive issue resolution.

High Availability: RDS supports Multi-AZ deployments for failover and read replicas for improved availability and fault tolerance.

AWS RDS simplifies database management, ensuring that organisations can focus on their applications while AWS takes care of the database infrastructure, backups, and maintenance. It’s a valuable service for those looking to run relational databases in the cloud with ease and reliability.