Amazon RDS is a managed, relational database offering from AWS. It allows developers to set up a production-ready database in minutes without having to worry about installations, provisioning infrastructure, or maintenance. It reduces operational overheads by automating backups and patching.Amazon RDS provides a high-performance database system that can scale vertically in minutes. It allows you to set up multiple read replicas for read-heavy workloads. With the underlying AWS infrastructure, HA (High Availability) can easily be achieved through multi-AZ deployments where data is replicated in another availability zone. It provides security features such as encryption at rest and in transit, deployment within a private subnet on Amazon VPC, and integration with IAM for access control.The pay-for-what-you-use pricing model, coupled with high-performance, production-ready features, and services such as AWS DMS and SCT, has made Amazon RDS a popular cost-effective choice.

Migration to Amazon RDS

One of the main reasons why customers want to migrate to the cloud is to reduce operational overhead and infrastructure costs. The limitations with the on-premises data centers in terms of scalability also become a concern while adapting to the business agility needs.The licensing cost of the database contributes heavily to the overall ownership cost. Legacy proprietary database systems reaching end-of-life need license renewals/fresh licenses which are quite expensive. With the advancements in the open-source database systems, customers are now seeking to migrate to open-source databases such as MySQL or variants and Postgres and eliminate the licensing cost.Amazon RDS is a managed RDBMS offering from AWS which addresses these concerns. Many customers, however, are still reluctant especially in case of heterogeneous migrations due to the lack of experience and the required skill set. Below are some of the best practices we recommend for overcoming the challenges faced by the customers before and during the migration phase.