Comparison Between RDS and On-Premises Databases

Service availability

For details, see Elastic Cloud Server User Guide.

Requires device procurement, primary/standby relationship setup, and RAID setup.

Data reliability

For details, see Elastic Volume Service User Guide.

Requires device procurement, primary/standby relationship setup, and RAID setup.

System security

Defends against DDoS attacks and promptly repairs database security vulnerabilities.

Requires procurement of expensive devices and software, as well as manual detection and repair of security vulnerabilities.

Database backup

Supports automated backups, manual backups, and custom backup retention periods.

Requires device procurement, setup, and maintenance.

Hardware and software investment

Supports on-demand pricing and scaling without requiring hardware and software investment.

Requires large investment in database servers. The Microsoft SQL Server license must be paid for separately.

System hosting

Not required.

Requires two servers for primary/standby DB instances.

Maintenance cost

Not required.

Requires large labor investment and professional database administrator (DBA) for maintenance.

Deployment and scaling

Supports elastic scaling, fast upgrade, and on-demand enabling.

Requires procurement, deployment, and coordination of hardware that matches original devices.

Resource utilization

Bills users based on the resources actually used, resulting in 100% resource utilization.

Considers peak traffic, resulting in low resource utilization.