Relational databases in Amazon cloud

Amazon has introduced a new web service to provide users with a simple way of installing and managing MySQL databases in a cloud environment. As is customary for Amazon's web services (AWS), the Relational Database Service (RDS) is initially being released as a beta program. It is intended as a relational alternative to Amazon's distributed SimpleDB database, which is written in Erlang. With this new product, Amazon says that it is responding to the large number of customers who require a relational database for their applications.

Amazon's RDS supports MySQL 5.1 and automatically integrates database administration functions such as the setting up and provisioning of a database or patch and backup management. The MySQL 5.1 instances will be configured with the InnoDB storage engine and among the features offered is the ability to import a mysqldump database dump into a MySQL instance. Available now on the AWS web site, the service costs from 11 US cents per hour with 1.7GB of RAM, up to $3.10 per hour for 68GB of RAM. Each instance can, during the beta, consume up to 1TB of storage. No details of service level agreements for the RDS system during beta are available.

In the coming months Amazon are planning to add an HA (High Availability) offering for the RDS service and a "Reserved DB" offering which involves payment of a one time fee for discounts on hourly usage charges.

(djwm)