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Databases

AWS has a database service for every workload type. The key skill is choosing the right tool — the wrong database choice is one of the most expensive and hard-to-fix architectural decisions you can make.

  • Fundamentals

    Relational vs NoSQL, ACID transactions, SQL basics, and the full database services comparison.

    DB Fundamentals

  • RDS and Aurora

    Managed relational databases. Multi-AZ vs Read Replicas, Aurora's distributed architecture, encryption, and when to choose Aurora over RDS.

    RDS and Aurora

  • DynamoDB

    AWS's serverless NoSQL. Partition key design, GSIs, Streams, DAX, and single-table design patterns.

    DynamoDB

Which Database?

Need ACID transactions, complex joins, structured schema?
  -> RDS (MySQL/PostgreSQL) or Aurora

Need best performance relational, MySQL/PostgreSQL compatible?
  -> Aurora

Need serverless NoSQL, millisecond latency, massive scale?
  -> DynamoDB

Need to reduce read load on RDS?
  -> Read Replicas

Need sub-millisecond caching?
  -> ElastiCache (Redis or Memcached)

Need analytics on terabytes, business intelligence?
  -> Redshift

Need social graph queries?
  -> Neptune

Need IoT / time-series metrics?
  -> Timestream