Database Insights

A step-by-step guide to migrating an on-premises Microsoft SQL Server database to Amazon RDS for SQL Server — covering native backup/restore via S3 with the rds_restore_database stored procedure, AWS DMS full-load + CDC for near-zero downtime, option group and IAM setup, cutover, and post-migration hardening.

The decision matrix for the three Azure SQL flavors: eight constraints (cross-DB queries, SQL Agent, CLR, linked servers, networking, licensing…) that pick Managed Instance vs Azure SQL Database vs SQL Server on Azure VM, with a cost comparison and migration paths.

Choose the optimal EC2 instance for your database workload. Compare R, X, I, and Graviton families with real-world benchmarks and cost-performance analysis.

Understand RDS Multi-AZ for HA and Read Replicas for read scaling — failover behavior, replication lag, and costs

Use Aurora Serverless v2 for cost-effective scaling — ACU configuration, scaling behavior, and when it fits

Deploy Aurora Global Database for sub-second cross-region replication. Understand storage-level replication, planned failover vs unplanned, and write forwarding for read regions.

RDS MySQL audit logs stored in CloudWatch cost significantly more than S3 — and most teams don't need real-time log access. Here's how to export audit logs to S3 and cut your AWS bill.

AWS DMS can migrate terabytes of data with zero downtime — but default settings leave significant performance on the table. Here's how to tune DMS for production-grade migrations.

Cut AWS database costs systematically: find over-provisioned RDS with Compute Optimizer, stop dev DBs after hours, buy Reserved Instances, and control storage growth.

Four configuration mistakes account for 60% of AWS database waste. Learn to right-size to Graviton3, convert gp2 to gp3 storage, audit idle replicas, and use Reserved Instances to cut your database bill by 25-40%.

Supabase, PlanetScale, and Neon each take a different approach to serverless databases. Compare their connection limits, branching features, cost models, and which fits your workload.

Understand the difference between RDS Multi-AZ and Read Replicas. Decision matrix covering HA, read scaling, Aurora cluster behavior, and cross-region DR.