Amazon RDS for SQL Server

SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. Amazon RDS for SQL Server makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale SQL Server deployments in the cloud. With Amazon RDS, you can deploy multiple editions of SQL Server (2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019) including Express, Web, Standard and Enterprise, in minutes with cost-efficient and re-sizable compute capacity. Amazon RDS frees you up to focus on application development by managing time-consuming database administration tasks including provisioning, backups, software patching, monitoring, and hardware scaling.

Amazon RDS for SQL Server supports the “License Included” licensing model. You do not need separately purchased Microsoft SQL Server licenses. "License Included" pricing is inclusive of software, underlying hardware resources, and Amazon RDS management capabilities.

You can take advantage of hourly pricing with no upfront fees or long-term commitments. In addition, you also have the option to purchase Reserved DB Instances under one or three year reservation terms. With Reserved DB Instances, you can make low, one-time, upfront payment for each DB Instance and then pay a significantly discounted hourly usage rate, achieving up to 65% net cost savings.

Amazon RDS for SQL Server DB Instances can be provisioned with either standard storage or Provisioned IOPS storage. Amazon RDS Provisioned IOPS is a storage option designed to deliver fast, predictable, and consistent I/O performance, and is optimized for I/O-intensive, transactional (OLTP) database workloads.

Benefits

Fully managed

Amazon RDS for SQL Server is fully managed by Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). You no longer need to worry about database management tasks such as hardware provisioning, software patching, setup, configuration, or backups.

Single click high availability

With a single click, you can enable the Multi-AZ option, replicating data synchronously across different availability zones. In case the primary node crashes, your database will automatically fail over to the secondary and we will automatically re-build the secondary.

Auto-scaled storage

By opting into Auto-Scale storage, instances will automatically increase the storage size with zero downtime. With RDS Storage Auto Scaling, you simply set your desired maximum storage limit, and Auto Scaling takes care of the rest.

Automated backups

Amazon RDS creates and saves automated backups of your SQL Server instance. Amazon RDS creates a storage volume snapshot of your instance, backing up the entire instance and not just individual databases. Amazon RDS for SQL Server creates automated backups of your DB instance during the backup window of your DB instance.

Upgrade and modernize

Amazon RDS SQL Server offers Enterprise, Standard Edition, Web, and Express Editions for SQL Server Versions 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2019. For SQL Server 2008 R2 (now deprecated) customers can still keep their database compatibility in 2008 and migrate to a new versions with minimal changes.

Ease of migration

We support a number of ways to migrate to Amazon RDS SQL Server, including Single and Multi-file native restores, Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard, Import/Export, Amazon Database Migration Service, and SQL Server Replication.