Amazon Aurora
By Amazon Web Services
Amazon Aurora is a fully managed relational database service on AWS that is compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, built on a cloud-native, distributed storage architecture for higher throughput and availability than standard managed…
Definition
Amazon Aurora is a fully managed relational database service on AWS that is compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, built on a cloud-native, distributed storage architecture for higher throughput and availability than standard managed MySQL/PostgreSQL.
Overview
Aurora reimplements the storage layer beneath MySQL and PostgreSQL, replicating data six ways across three Availability Zones automatically, so the database can tolerate the loss of an entire zone without losing data — a level of built-in Database Replication and durability beyond what typical self-managed MySQL or PostgreSQL setups provide. Because Aurora keeps compatibility with the MySQL and PostgreSQL wire protocols and SQL dialects, existing applications, ORMs, and tools generally work without modification, while gaining AWS-managed features such as automated backups, point-in-time recovery, and up to 15 low-latency read replicas. Aurora also offers Aurora Serverless, which automatically scales compute capacity up and down based on load, and fits within AWS's managed database lineup alongside Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Neptune; its architecture and operational model are core material in courses like AWS Solutions Architect.
Key Features
- MySQL and PostgreSQL wire-protocol compatibility
- Storage automatically replicated six ways across three Availability Zones
- Up to 15 low-latency read replicas
- Aurora Serverless for automatic compute scaling
- Continuous backup to Amazon S3 with point-in-time recovery
- Global Database for low-latency cross-region reads