Two days ago Amazon announced the release of a new product, the “Relational Database Service”. Essentially, MySQL 5.1 on a AMI with no access to the server other than through the mysql client API. They are posing it as a network database appliance. I would propose that it’s a start but not the end game.
While I think it’s a great move on Amazon’s part there are some flaws. The limits on access pose a large challenge. I can’t see log files or the my.cnf. I have to depend on others for performance tuning and backups. I don’t particularly care for that.
Along ith the new RDS Amazon recently announced new “high-memory” instances (up to 68.4 GB of RAM) and price cuts that will take place beginning November the 1st. The increased memory makes these server instances even more practical.
I like the Amazon products. Amazon has a history of both adding new cloud services and continuing to polishing the ones they already have. There is a good chance that with some tweaks (such as the ability to perform replication) this could be a great service. I don’t think it will ever completely replace “traditional” servers but there is a definite place for them. I could see using them immediately for developers and even some testing. Even so, I would be inclined to continue using a standard Linux distro AMI and setting up my own database servers.
No matter your brand of database, you should be paying attention the happenings in the cloud services space. Over the next 3 – 5 years 90% or more of you will be using a service such as Amazon’s on a regular basis to perform some or all of your daily DBA or developer tasks. You need to understand both the advantages and the limitations of such services.