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Flexibility, scalability, and reliability are crucial factors for startups leveraging cloud solutions like AWS to power their products. When it comes to hosting relational databases, two prominent AWS options stand out: Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS. But which one is right for your business?
While both offer comprehensive tools to manage relational databases, they differ in their design, performance, and scalability. Understanding these distinctions is essential for startups making critical infrastructure decisions.
What Is a Database Engine? | What Database Engines Does AWS Support? | What is Amazon RDS? | What Is Amazon Aurora? | What are the downsides of Amazon Aurora? | Should My Startup Use Amazon Aurora or Amazon RDS? | Not Sure Which Solution To Use?
What Is a Database Engine?
A database engine is the core software a database management system uses to perform operations like creating, reading, updating, and deleting data. It’s the foundation of your database’s functionality, much like the operating system is to your computer.
Popular relational database engines today include MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL. AWS enables startups to run these engines on two powerful services: Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora.
What Database Engines Does AWS Support?
AWS offers support for seven distinct database engines, which are hosted on two primary services: Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora. These services cater to a wide range of database management needs, providing flexibility and performance tailored to different business requirements.
What is Amazon RDS?
Amazon RDS is a fully managed SQL database service that simplifies database management tasks like provisioning, patching, setup, and backups. By handling these time-consuming responsibilities, Amazon RDS allows developers and database administrators to focus on more critical aspects of their applications.
Think of Amazon RDS as a traditional database you’d run on your own server, but with the added convenience and efficiency of being optimized for easy use and maintenance. Its familiar architecture makes it a seamless choice for seasoned database administrators.
However, what if you’re looking for a database solution specifically optimized for the cloud? Enter Amazon Aurora, a service designed from the ground up to deliver exceptional performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency tailored to cloud environments.
What Is Amazon Aurora?
Amazon Aurora is a fully managed relational database solution, compatible with both MySQL and PostgreSQL, and purpose-built by Amazon to thrive in cloud environments. Aurora bridges the gap between traditional enterprise databases and open-source alternatives, offering the high performance of enterprise solutions combined with the affordability and simplicity of open-source systems.
What sets Amazon Aurora apart is its remarkable performance—delivering up to 5 times the speed of standard MySQL databases and 3 times that of PostgreSQL, all at a lower cost. This makes Aurora an excellent choice for startups and enterprises seeking a scalable, cost-effective, and high-performing database solution tailored for the cloud.
Amazon Aurora is purpose-built as a cloud-native database, setting it apart from traditional databases adapted for the cloud. On the surface, it mirrors the functionality of other RDS databases, being fully API-compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, and serves as an easy drop-in replacement.
However, the distinctions become clear beneath the surface. Unlike conventional setups where the entire database runs on EC2 instances, Aurora separates computing and storage into specialized domains. Storage is managed by a sophisticated custom data layer that leverages AWS’s distributed cloud infrastructure.
Rather than housing all data within database servers, Aurora employs separate nodes dedicated to storage and computing. This design eliminates common bottlenecks such as network or I/O limitations.
Data resides in a virtualized “cluster volume” spread across multiple Availability Zones (AZs). This architecture minimizes data replication lag, ensuring that all nodes maintain the same data concurrently. These storage nodes scale dynamically with your needs, accommodating up to 128TB, while your costs adjust accordingly.
Meanwhile, queries are processed by compute nodes. These nodes are free from replication tasks, allowing them to operate without maintaining permanent states. As a result, they can scale and recover more rapidly, enhancing performance and reliability.
The Aurora architecture offers several compelling advantages over traditional database management solutions:
Enhanced Scalability
Aurora enables rapid scaling by adding read replicas that can serve queries immediately. This eliminates the delay associated with replicating data from existing nodes, as is often required with Amazon RDS. The cluster volume architecture minimizes inter-node I/O, allowing Aurora to support up to 15 replicas effortlessly.
Superior Data Redundancy
Aurora ensures high data availability with six storage nodes distributed across three Availability Zones (AZs). In the event of an AZ failure, the data remains accessible from the other two zones. Achieving a similar level of redundancy with RDS would require deploying multiple read replicas, increasing complexity.
Advanced Disaster Recovery
Aurora’s compute nodes offer rapid recovery capabilities. If a compute node fails, new read replicas can be initiated almost instantly. Similarly, if a writer node fails, another replica can take over seamlessly without requiring consensus among other nodes. This significantly minimizes downtime, ensuring a smooth user experience even during failures.
Aurora Serverless for Dynamic Scaling
Aurora Serverless offers automated scaling of compute capacity based on application demand. This allows you to optimize costs by paying only for the compute, storage, and I/O resources used. It’s particularly advantageous for workloads with unpredictable traffic or long idle periods. For consistent and sustained workloads, a standard Aurora or RDS setup might be more suitable.
Accurately forecasting your workload is one of the most effective strategies for managing AWS costs. If you’re uncertain about the best database solution for your needs, consider scheduling a free consultation for tailored advice.
Aurora Global Database for Seamless Global Reach
For globally distributed startups, Aurora Global Database is a game-changer. It enables a single Aurora database to operate across multiple AWS regions without sacrificing performance. This ensures low-latency access for users worldwide and provides robust disaster recovery capabilities against region-wide outages.
Aurora’s unique combination of scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency makes it a top choice for startups aiming to streamline operations and enhance performance on a global scale.
Drawbacks of Amazon Aurora
While Amazon Aurora offers a wealth of benefits, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Here are some scenarios where Aurora might not be the best fit for your startup:
Limited Database Engine Support
Amazon Aurora supports only two database engines—MySQL and PostgreSQL. If your startup requires MariaDB, Oracle, or Microsoft SQL Server, you’ll need to opt for Amazon RDS instead. Additionally, Aurora exclusively uses the InnoDB storage engine, which might not suit use cases requiring other storage engines.
Ineligibility for AWS Free Tier
Unlike Amazon RDS, Aurora is not included in the AWS Free Tier. This means startups looking for a cost-free entry point to test and explore database options will need to consider RDS, which allows running a database instance for up to a year without charge.
Higher Cost for Entry-Level Use Cases
Aurora is designed for scalability and performance, which can make it costlier for startups with smaller-scale, predictable workloads. In such cases, RDS might provide a more cost-effective solution.
Pro Tip from Webby Cloud
If you’re confident that Aurora aligns with your business needs, consider applying for the AWS Activate program. This initiative provides up to $100,000 in AWS credits, which can be used for services like Amazon Aurora. With this program, you can significantly reduce initial costs and invest in a robust database solution from day one.
Curious about your eligibility or need guidance? Contact Webby Cloud today to explore how we can support your journey with AWS.
Amazon Aurora VS Amazon RDS?
Ultimately, the choice between Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora depends on your unique requirements. If you’re working with an existing database, Amazon RDS might be the better option due to its compatibility with traditional database structures, making integration into current workflows more straightforward.
On the other hand, if you’re building a new product or leveraging MySQL or PostgreSQL, Amazon Aurora offers significant advantages. Its superior reliability, scalability, and performance make it an excellent choice for startups aiming for cost-effectiveness and speed without compromising on functionality.
Accelerate Your AWS Success with Webby Cloud
Choosing between Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS is just the beginning of your cloud journey. To fully optimize your AWS infrastructure and costs, let Webby Cloud be your trusted partner.
As specialists in AWS services for startups, we provide expert advice and cost-efficient strategies tailored to your needs. Through the AWS Activate program, we can help you secure up to $100,000 in AWS credits to kickstart your cloud initiatives.
Additionally, our AWS Resell program offers immediate savings, including a 3% discount on your total AWS spend. With Webby Cloud, you can build a resilient, scalable, and cost-effective AWS setup that supports your business growth.
Discover how we can help your startup maximize AWS benefits by visiting our AWS for Startups page. Let’s turn your cloud vision into reality.
