Benefits of migrating from MySQL to Oracle for Amazon RDS. Worth it? [A: no]

Question

Amazon recently announced support for Oracle in its RDS product line: http://aws.amazon.com/rds/oracle/

I was wondering if anyone had used this, or if there was a serious reason for migrating my data from MySQL to Oracle. I do not run a supermassive data installation, and previously the cost / complexity of obtaining an Oracle license did not allow me to evaluate the product. With RDS, I think it just becomes a pure economic problem - 16c / hr versus 11c for small or 3.40 / hr versus 2.60 for 4xl. This is approximately 30-50% of the premium.

Obviously, the cost will be slightly higher, and, obviously, Oracle is a more "mature" product. But what considerations should I have? What key things would make me switch? How do I structure my assessment / decision?

Is the engine more efficient? Can I get away with a smaller copy and save money in general?

Does the product have killer features that make it easier or faster to manage applications? Can it save time to justify the price?

Does it make sense for a small database or is Oracle important for expansion?

I am in the “evaluation” phase and just trying to find my head over a product with which I had little attention before. Any input / perspective would be appreciated.

Answer 1

My opinion is that if you have MySQL skills, move on to MySQL. If you have Oracle skills, go with Oracle (for now, you can bear the cost). If you don't have this, MySQL skills are likely to be cheaper to hire when you need it. For most purposes, especially for the application you are developing for working in the cloud, they will both be "good enough" to work.

You won’t get sexual features like compression in Oracle Standard Edition. Since this is a cloud, you do not get real control over the equipment.

You will probably even find that MySQL replication is more "friendly" than any Oracle equivalent if you ever need to scale.

I would say that Oracle on Amazon is an alternative to Oracle on your own server (in some situations) more than an alternative to MySQL on Amazon