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

Question

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

I was wondering if anyone has used this, or if there would be a compelling reason to migrate my data from MySQL to Oracle. I don't run a super-massive data installation, and previously, the cost / hassle of getting an Oracle license blocked me from evaluating the product. With RDS, I guess it just becomes a pure economic issue - 16c / hr vs 11c for small, or 3.40 / hr vs 2.60 for 4xl. That's roughly a 30-50% premium.

Obviously, the cost would be a bit higher, and clearly, Oracle is the more "mature" product. But what considerations should I have? What key things would drive me to switch? How should I structure my evaluation / decision?

Is the engine more efficient? Could I get away with a smaller instance and save money overall?

Are there killer features in the product that make building apps faster / easier to manage? Could it save me time in some way to justify the price?

Does it make sense for a small database, or is Oracle only important for scaling up?

I'm in the "evaluation" phase and just trying to get my head around a product that I previously had little exposure to. Any input / perspective would be appreciated.

Answer 1

My opinion is, if you have MySQL skills then go with MySQL. If you have Oracle skills, go with Oracle (as long as you can wear the expense). If you don't have either, MySQL skills will probably be cheaper to hire in when you need them. For most purposes, especially for an app you are developing to run on the cloud, they will both be 'good enough' for the job.

You won't get 'sexy' features, like compression, on the Standard Edition Oracle. Because it is cloud, you get no real control over the hardware.

You'll probably even find MySQL replication more 'friendly' than any Oracle equivalent if you ever need to scale out.

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