RDS Alternative

The public cloud database/RDS is a so-called “out-of-the-box” solution, but it delivers a long way from satisfying users: expensive compared to building your own database, many features that require super-user privileges are neutered, stupid UI and pot-luck features, but among all the problems, the most important one is the cloud software safty and cost issues.

• Software that runs on your own computer can continue to run even if the software provider goes out of business. But if the company/department providing the cloud software goes out of business or decides to stop supporting it, that software won’t work, and the data you created with that software is locked up. Because the data is only stored in the cloud, not on your own server’s disk, and the only compensation you can expect is usually a chicken scratch voucher.
• Cloud services may suddenly suspend your account without warning or recourse. You could be judged by an automated system to be in violation of the TOS when you are completely innocent: undocumented use of ports 80 & 53, account blasted and used to send malware or phishing emails, triggering a breach of the TOS. Or hammered over by a cloud vendor for some political reason, such as Parler.

Thrifty

The cost of cloud databases is another issue: saving money is an immediate need for users. Public cloud vendors’ RDS may have advantages over traditional commercial databases, but they are still sky-high before building their own open-source databases. According to statistics, the comprehensive holding cost of RDS is up to 2~3x higher than self-build based on cloud servers, and even higher 5~10 times higher than self-build hosted by IDC.

Pigsty has significant cost advantages over using a cloud database. For example, you can buy the same size cloud server for half the overhead of a cloud database and deploy the database yourself using Pigsty. In this case, you can enjoy most of the ease and convenience of managing a public cloud (IaaS), while instantly saving more than half the overhead.

Pigsty open source and free, in the premise of providing similar or even exceed the cloud vendor RDS experience, can reduce the comprehensive cost of ownership of the database by 50% ~ 80%, and let the data really control in the hands of the user.

Last modified 2022-06-04: fill en docs (5a858d3)