Issue link: https://resources.awscloud.com/i/1496544
Self-Managed Versus Managed Databases We now look specifically at databases. Your options in the cloud divide into two major categories: Self-managed databases In this cloud offering, the vendor provides just the hardware, the hypervisor to run your VM, and the API or other tools to manage deployment. You need to create a VM running an oper‐ ating system and your application. Obviously, you can run any‐ thing you want in the VM, including a database engine of your choice. You need to perform most of the administrative tasks yourself, such as installing updates and configuring all of the networking options. Managed databases In this cloud offering, the vendor provides not only hardware but also the server software itself. Most vendors offer both tra‐ ditional databases (such as Oracle and MySQL) and cloud native databases that are specific to that vendor. Self-managed databases are much more like running your own data‐ base on-premises; managed databases change the way you work a lot more. Here are the key differences: • If you use a managed database, you don't need to manually download, install, update, configure, or back up the database; the cloud provider does all of that. You can still modify parame‐ ters that instruct the database how to run (collation, cursors, connections, etc.) and control decisions such as whether to install new releases and how long to retain backups. • Sometimes, the cloud vendor can provide a license for a propri‐ etary database and include the cost with the cost of using the cloud service. In other cases, you are still responsible for obtain‐ ing a license. If you already purchased a license from a propriet‐ ary database vendor, you can sometimes apply that to a managed database. • Because the vendor installs and runs the managed database, you are limited to the choices the vendor makes. You can't ask for a database engine that isn't supported by the vendor, or even a version that isn't already supported. But the three big vendors Self-Managed Versus Managed Databases | 5