Amazon Aurora DSQL is a serverless distributed SQL database with virtually unlimited scale, the highest availability, and zero infrastructure management.

I’ve been working on DSQL for a number years. Before working on DSQL, I used to work for Amazon EC2, where we managed a very large MySQL installation. The performance and availability of these databases has a direct impact on the performance and availability of customers’ ability to launch and discover their instances.

As it turns out, running (many) 1000s of databases is quite the challenge. Over the years, we’ve hardened our understanding of how to operate at scale, how to use the database effectively, and how to build applications that interact with the database responsibly.

Ultimately, this journey led us to develop new database technology. It led us to develop a database that doesn’t have a single point of failure, that doesn’t rely on vertical scaling, or application-level sharding.

What is DSQL? Imagine an AWS service like DynamoDB or S3. A service where you don’t have to pick an instance type (do I want large or 4xlarge?). A service where there is no infrastructure to manage, or patch. A service that is pay-as-you-go, that scales to meet your needs. Then, add in the capabilities of a relational database. The ability to run complex transactions, do joins, and evolve your schema over time.

Below, please find a list of articles I’ve written about DSQL engineering or design choices. If you have topics you’re interested in, please reach out.

• Aurora DSQL: How authentication and authorization works
  • Troubleshooting DSQL auth
• How direct TLS can speed up your connections
• Aurora DSQL and the Circle of Life
  • Best Practices: Avoid hot keys
    • DSQL sucks at TPC-B
  • Aurora DSQL scales to zero
• Aurora DSQL: How to spend a dollar
• Aurora DSQL: Pushdown Compute Engine