MariaDB Collaborates with AWS to Deliver SkySQL on AWS

By Afza Wajid, Global Business Lead, SaaS at AWS
By Sudhir Reddy Maddulapally, Sr. Solutions Architect, SaaS at AWS

Have you ever had to manage a transactional database and data warehouse separately when the better solution would be to combine the two?

For example, when a real-time analytical layer is needed on top of a transactional database, separate management can be less than ideal. Traditionally, solving for this scenario has meant leasing an expensive database appliance and sizing it for current and forecasted usage needs—essentially trading off agility for the sake of performance.

MariaDB is an AWS Partner that solves this with a single unified analytical and transactional cloud database, that can auto-scale without the costly tradeoffs, with SkySQL. It’s a database as a service (DBaaS) solution on Amazon Web Services (AWS) that makes it easy for customers to start using MariaDB Enterprise in the cloud.

SkySQL eliminates the need to pre-provision expensive hardware for testing, which often sits idle. SkySQL database services are deployed with a few clicks and support multiple workloads including transactions, analytics, and distributed SQL. SkySQL is available in 10 AWS regions at launch with plans for more in the future.

Customers are invited to try MariaDB SkySQL on AWS—new SkySQL accounts qualify for $500 in credits.

Working closely with teams from the AWS Partner Network (APN), AWS SaaS Factory, and AWS Marketplace, MariaDB navigated technical and business decisions to design, implement, and launch the DBaaS offering within a few months.

In this post, we speak with Alexey Vorovich, VP of Engineering for SkySQL at MariaDB Corporation, about the recent SkySQL launch.

Q&A with MariaDB

AWS SaaS Factory: Can you tell us about your background and personal experience with cloud computing?

Alexey Vorovich: My previous experience includes leading technical development and full lifecycle product management. Heading up the server development group for Information Builders, a BI/ETL vendor, involved innovative work on a product line that spanned all major database management system and operating system variations, and was available both as a cloud-based version as well as on-premises.

At MariaDB, I am leading the development of our cloud database, MariaDB SkySQL, which is focused on delivering the best MariaDB experience in the cloud.

AWS SaaS Factory: Can you explain SkySQL, the DBaaS service you are launching on AWS?

Alexey Vorovich: SkySQL gives customers the freedom to support any workload, at any scale in the cloud. SkySQL delivers unmatched flexibility and massive scalability in a cloud database that keeps up with customers’ changing needs while saving 90% of their legacy database costs. It is elastic and indestructible, with best-in-class high availability, and it’s designed to support each customer’s cloud strategy.

The availability of SkySQL on AWS provides a unique opportunity for customers planning to move their critical on-premises database workloads to AWS. SkySQL delivers the same stable and secure enterprise MariaDB that customers are familiar with on premises—but now in the cloud. Customers also get the same world-class experience and personalized engagement for which MariaDB is known.

AWS SaaS Factory: What are some of the key customer benefits?

Alexey Vorovich: SkySQL unlocks scalability in the cloud by making it possible for customers to scale from hundreds to millions of transactions per second with zero downtime. SkySQL is also versatile in supporting workloads (transactions + analytics) all in one database service.

SkySQL’s transactional scalability comes from Xpand, MariaDB’s distributed SQL database. An important differentiator in the database domain, Xpand pushes beyond the scalability limits of traditional relational databases by distributing data while maintaining data integrity and high availability.

SkySQL is built for enterprise-grade security and reliability. Built from the ground up to secure customer databases running on public cloud infrastructure, SkySQL applies stringent measures that surpass standard security protocols, to eliminate potential vulnerabilities, minimize the attack surface, and enforce strict access protocols.

In doing so, SkySQL has created a reference cloud security architecture based on compartmentalization, isolation and indirect access. SkySQL is compliant with ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR.

AWS SaaS Factory: Can you walk us through the architecture? Which AWS services are key?

Alexey Vorovich: In our current release of SkySQL, we offer dedicated tenancy with AWS account-level isolation for each customer. This is very important for customers who need the highest level of isolation for their data in the cloud, without any compromise on performance.

We rely on multiple AWS services to provision database clusters for customers in our data plane as well as control plane services like logging. SkySQL leverages Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) to let customers scale their database deployments with the click of a button. SkySQL uses AWS Key Management Service (KMS) for encryption at rest and in transit. We use AWS PrivateLink to keep the traffic between the control plane and the data plane on AWS’s backbone for the most secure connection.

AWS SaaS Factory: How do AWS customers get started on SkySQL on AWS?

Alexey Vorovich: If you’re an AWS customer, using SkySQL is no different than any other AWS database service. SkySQL is available for purchase in AWS Marketplace. Once you’ve set up an account and deployed a service, SkySQL provides centralized database management across multiple regions and/or cloud service providers using a single pane of glass for deployment, configuration and monitoring.

Customers wanting to connect to SkySQL use the advertised SkySQL service endpoint to securely connect over AWS PrivateLink without data having to traverse the public internet.

Getting started is extremely simple. It takes a few minutes to log in and you can launch a database in AWS with a few clicks of a button. For new SkySQL accounts, we are also offering $500 in credits.

AWS SaaS Factory: What support did AWS SaaS Factory provide your team?

Alexey Vorovich: We worked closely with the AWS SaaS Factory team to accelerate the development and launch of SkySQL. They provided in-depth guidance to help us better understand specific AWS services to integrate with SkySQL, to optimize the performance of SkySQL on AWS, and to facilitate the launch of SkySQL on AWS Marketplace.

Furthermore, thanks to SaaS Factory, we were able to work with the AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) team to make it easier for our on-premises MariaDB Enterprise customers to migrate to SkySQL on AWS.

AWS SaaS Factory: What would you tell others planning to build a SaaS solution on AWS?

Alexey Vorovich: Early in the process, identify key architectural aspects of the tenancy model, dedicated or multi-tenancy, in the context of AWS services, and how to leverage each one of the architectural patterns in your control plane vs. data plane. Doing this at the beginning of the process will help make faster scalability decisions.

Analyze your individual AWS service needs at scale and work with the AWS support team to adjust your account-specific quotas. For instance, we leveraged a deep integration of KMS with other AWS services to improve our security posture, and AWS PrivateLink that helped simplify the producer-consumer interconnect design without dependencies on IP address specifics and other network-level constructs.

Lastly, leverage AWS SaaS Competency Partners, along with various AWS funding options, to accelerate development of the SaaS solution.

About AWS SaaS Factory

AWS SaaS Factory helps organizations at any stage of the SaaS journey. Whether looking to build new products, migrate existing applications, or optimize SaaS solutions on AWS, we can help. Visit the AWS SaaS Factory Insights Hub to discover more technical and business content and best practices.

SaaS builders are encouraged to reach out to their account representative to inquire about engagement models and to work with the AWS SaaS Factory team.

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