Comparison Between RDS and On-Premises Databases

Table 1 lists the advantages of RDS over on-premises databases.

**Table 1** Comparison
Item	RDS	On-Premises Database
Service availability	For details, see ECS Advantages.	Requires device procurement, primary/standby relationship setup, and RAID setup.
Data reliability	For details, see What Is EVS?	Requires device procurement, primary/standby relationship setup, and RAID setup.
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 RDS for 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.