What is AWS RDS? A Managed Database Service for Scalable Applications

Running a database in production requires handling backups, updates, replication, and scaling. Instead of doing all of this manually, developers often turn to AWS RDS, Amazon’s managed relational database service.

What is AWS RDS?

AWS RDS (Relational Database Service) is a managed database service by Amazon Web Services.
It allows you to run relational databases in the cloud without managing the underlying infrastructure.

AWS RDS supports multiple engines, including:

• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• MariaDB
• Oracle
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Amazon Aurora (AWS’s own engine)

Why use AWS RDS?

• Fully managed → AWS handles backups, patching, and upgrades.
• Scalability → easily adjust compute and storage as your app grows.
• High availability → multi-AZ deployments for fault tolerance.
• Security → encryption at rest and in transit, IAM integration, and VPC isolation.
• Monitoring → integrated with CloudWatch for metrics and alerts.

Common Use Cases

• Web applications → run production databases without manual setup.
• APIs and backends → scalable and secure relational storage.
• Analytics → use RDS data with AWS analytics tools.
• Enterprise workloads → Oracle or SQL Server migrations to the cloud.

AWS RDS vs Self-Hosted Databases

• Self-hosted → full control but requires manual scaling, patching, and backups.
• AWS RDS → less control but fully managed, saving time and reducing errors.

Conclusion

AWS RDS is the go-to choice for developers who want reliable, scalable, and secure relational databases without the overhead of managing servers. It combines the power of traditional databases with the convenience of cloud automation.

👉 You can see AWS RDS in action on Dashfolio Movies, where it hosts the PostgreSQL database that powers all queries, seamlessly integrated with Prisma and NestJS.