Aurora is Amazon’s own database engine, MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible, built for the cloud. It delivers much higher throughput than standard RDS engines with storage that auto-scales and self-heals across three Availability Zones.
Why the exam favors Aurora
When a scenario wants a relational database with high performance, high availability, and automatic storage scaling — and cost isn’t the top constraint — Aurora is usually the intended answer. It offers up to 15 read replicas, automatic failover, and Aurora Serverless for variable workloads.
Test yourself
A company needs a MySQL-compatible relational database with the highest availability and automatic storage scaling, and is willing to pay for performance. Which is the best fit?
- RDS for MySQL, Single-AZ
- Amazon Aurora MySQL-compatible
- DynamoDB
- Self-managed MySQL on EC2
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Aurora is MySQL-compatible, auto-scales storage across three AZs, and offers automatic failover with high performance. Single-AZ RDS (A) lacks HA; DynamoDB (C) is NoSQL, not MySQL-compatible; self-managed MySQL (D) puts all the ops burden on you.
Related topics
Amazon RDS · Amazon ElastiCache · Amazon DynamoDB
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