Fully managed

Database management is undifferentiated heavy lifting for many organizations. Your data is your most valuable asset, and you want to invest resources in getting value from your data to create innovative and differentiated experiences. AWS removes the heavy lifting of undifferentiated database management tasks providing automatic failovers, backup and recovery, industry compliance, automated patching, and more – with built-in best practices. As a database administrator, you provide value by assisting on schema design, query optimization, and access control. All of AWS Databases come with reliable tooling for all aspects of database management to ensure that your database is operating at the highest level.

You get cost-effective scaling of compute power and storage, easier capacity planning, and pay-as-you-go pricing, along with several reserved options to save even more. You get plenty of tooling support, including the ability to set up database instances using AWS CloudFormation templates, API calls, and command-line scripts. You also get to take advantage of AWS long track record of operational excellence: AWS takes care of availability, storage durability, and disaster recovery. Above all, AWS has invested in its global infrastructure so you can deploy your application in a new Region within minutes. With AWS, database operations transform from being a resource-intensive burden into a strategic advantage while maintaining the security, availability, and performance your applications require.

Security is job zero. Keeping your data safe and secure is of paramount importance. With AWS Databases, you have full control over where and how your data is secured: your data is stored in a particular AWS Region, and moves from one Region to another only with your consent. You can use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to enable and control programmatic access to the database instance, security groups to enable network access, and the native permission model of each database engine to control access to tables, stored procedures, and other database entities.

You have multiple options for protecting data at rest and in transit, and can use your own keys or AWS-managed keys. You can also take advantage of specialized security features offered by the database engine. With AWS Databases, security operations run continuously and automatically across your database fleet. AWS manages regular security patches and updates, certificate rotation and renewal, encryption key management, access control configuration, and security group maintenance.

Sophisticated monitoring systems work continuously to maintain database health. Integration with Amazon CloudWatch provides comprehensive metrics and logs, enabling early detection of potential issues. When problems occur, automated recovery processes respond in seconds – from replacing failed nodes to rebalancing workloads for optimal performance.

Automated backup systems eliminate manual processes while improving data protection. Point-in-time recovery combines automated daily snapshots with transaction logs, maintaining recovery points that meet your compliance requirements. Cross-region backup copying provides additional protection, with automated verification ensuring backup integrity.

AWS managed databases continuously improve through regular feature updates and performance enhancements. Recent innovations include:

• Zero-downtime patching capabilities
• Automated performance optimization
• Enhanced monitoring and diagnostics
• Improved backup and recovery options

These improvements are automatically available to your databases, often requiring no action from your teams to implement.