Scalr’s Stadil on Amazon’s New Relational Database Service
Earlier this week, Amazon Web Services announced the RDS, the Relational Database Service. From ProgrammableWeb’s writeup:
Like previous data services from Amazon such asSimpleDB, RDS is relational (our profiles for the SimpleDB API and new RDS API). In fact, it’s a MySQL 5.1 instance but the main difference is that it is hosted on a virtual server instance in Amazon’s data center. And it can expand and contract as needed, programmatically. Like the Amazon APIs before it, RDS was built to provide developers access to Amazon’s infrastructure, with pay-as-you-go pricing based on your usage.
I sat down with Scalr CEO Sebastian Stadil (as well as their CTO, Igor Savchenko) today to get his reactions on the launch of RDS. Scalr provides provisioning, automation and scaling services on top of AWS.
Full interview after the jump.
Q: What was your initial reaction when you heard the RDS news, had AWS briefed upstream ecosystem providers such as yourself prior to it?
Sebastian Stadil: “Wow. Amazon is going above the hypervisor!” was the initial reaction. There was about 15 minutes between the ecosystem briefing and the official announcement. I’m glad I wasn’t taking a coffee break, or I would have lost the heads up!
Then I saw the no ssh restriction, and thought that this is Amazon moving along the restrictions vs customization tradeoff seen in PaaS.
Igor Savchenko: Regarding this, I have checked RDS API and found that they provide an API calls that allow you to change any mysql options like max_user_connections or max_allowed_packet. So my.ini can be managed via API.
In this case there is no need for SSH access. Service called RDS and client receive MySQL database with ability to configure it and nothing else. SSH access will allow clients to broke insatnce, install extra components and in this case it will be a simple EC2 instance.
Q: What are some of the things Scalr.net does for real time DB scaling and management that RDS cannot do?
Replication and DNS-based handling of reads and writes. We go beyond just resizing a DB to create multiple copies of it for higher performance.
Q: Is this the first time AWS has announced a feature that allows for a real time resizing of an instance? Do you see that capability expanding into other offerings within EC2?
Not sure, as it might be a condition that users don’t have ssh access. MySQL is really an appliance, whereas your app can’t be managed by Amazon the same way.
Q: Does this make Amazon a more competitive partner to Scalr.net or does it increase their unique value to your platform?
Resizing an instance is the best way to scale a Master MySQL server, so everyone benefits. It allows us to focus on our mission which is make automate all systems administration. If you’re doing sysadmin work, you should think of Scalr.
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
