MySQL (/ˌmaɪˌɛsˌkjuːˈɛl/ “My S-Q-L”)[5] is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS).[5][6] Its name is a combination of “My”, the name of co-founder Michael Widenius‘s daughter,[7] and “SQL“, the abbreviation for Structured Query Language.
MySQL is free and open-source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, and is also available under a variety of proprietary licenses. MySQL was owned and sponsored by the Swedish company MySQL AB, which was bought by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle Corporation).[8] In 2010, when Oracle acquired Sun, Widenius forked the open-source MySQL project to create MariaDB.[9]
MySQL is a component of the LAMP web application software stack (and others), which is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python. MySQL is used by many database-driven web applications, including Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, and WordPress. MySQL is also used by many popular websites, including Facebook,[10][11] Flickr,[12] MediaWiki,[13] Twitter,[14] and YouTube.[15]
MySQL is the most trusted and widely used open source database platform in use today. 10 out of the top 10 most popular and highly-trafficked websites in the world rely on MySQL. MySQL 8.0 builds on this momentum by delivering across the board improvements designed to enable innovative DBAs and developers to create and deploy the next generation of web, embedded, mobile and Cloud/SaaS/PaaS/DBaaS applications on the latest generation of development frameworks and hardware platforms. MySQL 8.0 highlights include:
- MySQL Document Store
- Transactional Data Dictionary
- SQL Roles
- Default to utf8mb4
- Common Table Expressions
- Window Functions
- And much more…
Azure Database for MySQL provides fully managed, enterprise-ready community MySQL database as a service. The MySQL Community edition helps you easily lift and shift to the cloud, using languages and frameworks of your choice. On top of that, you get built-in high availability and dynamic scaling, helping you easily adjust to changes in customer demands. Additionally, you benefit from the unparalleled security and compliance, including Azure IP advantage, as well as Azure’s industry leading reach. All this with a flexible pricing model so you can choose resources for your workload with no hidden cost.
Community MySQL that’s fully managed
Combine MySQL Community edition with the benefits of a fully managed service provider, and free developers from the complexity of infrastructure and database management so they can focus on building exceptional apps.
Azure Database for MySQL is a relational database service in the Microsoft cloud based on the MySQL Community Edition (available under the GPLv2 license) database engine, versions 5.6, 5.7, and 8.0. Azure Database for MySQL delivers:
- Built-in high availability with no additional cost.
- Predictable performance, using inclusive pay-as-you-go pricing.
- Scale as needed within seconds.
- Secured to protect sensitive data at-rest and in-motion.
- Automatic backups and point-in-time-restore for up to 35 days.
- Enterprise-grade security and compliance.
These capabilities require almost no administration and all are provided at no additional cost. They allow you to focus on rapid app development and accelerating your time to market rather than allocating precious time and resources to managing virtual machines and infrastructure. In addition, you can continue to develop your application with the open-source tools and platform of your choice to deliver with the speed and efficiency your business demands, all without having to learn new skills.
See these quickstarts to get you started:
- Create an Azure Database for MySQL server using Azure portal
- Create an Azure Database for MySQL server using Azure CLI
For a set of Azure CLI samples, see:
MySQL is the world’s most popular open source relational database and Amazon RDS makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale MySQL deployments in the cloud. With Amazon RDS, you can deploy scalable MySQL servers in minutes with cost-efficient and resizable hardware capacity.
Amazon RDS for MySQL frees you up to focus on application development by managing time-consuming database administration tasks including backups, software patching, monitoring, scaling and replication.
Amazon RDS supports MySQL Community Edition versions 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, and 8.0 which means that the code, applications, and tools you already use today can be used with Amazon RDS.
Working with Amazon RDS for MySQL
Amazon RDS allows you to use the AWS Management Console or a simple set of web services APIs to create, delete and modify relational database instances (DB Instances). You can also control access and security for your instance(s) and manage your database backups and snapshots. For a full list of the available Amazon RDS APIs, please see the Amazon RDS API Guide.
Migrating to Amazon RDS for MySQL
If your application already relies on a MySQL database, importing data to Amazon RDS is simple. In general, to migrate your data to Amazon RDS you simply:
- Create a DB Instance with the compute, storage capacity and access controls required.
- For smaller databases (e.g. up to 1 GB), extract the data with mysqldump and pipe it directly into Amazon RDS. Below is an example showing the “acme” database being copied to Amazon RDS:
mysqldump acme | mysql –host=hostname –user=username –password acme
For larger databases, build your database schema in Amazon RDS, then convert the data into a flat file and import it into your DB Instance using the mysqlimport utility. Below is an example showing the “acme” database being copied to Amazon RDS:
mysqlimport –local –compress –user=username –password –host=hostname –fields-terminated-by=’,’ Acme sales.part_*
- Update the database connection string in your application config file.
For more information on importing data into Amazon RDS, see the Amazon RDS Data Import Guide for MySQL.
Paying for What You Use
You will be charged at the end of each month for the Amazon RDS resources you actually consume. Once a DB Instance you have created is available for connection, you will be charged for each hour your DB Instance is running. Each DB Instance will run until termination, which occurs when you issue an API call to delete the DB Instance, or in the event of an instance failure. Partial DB Instance hours consumed are billed as full hours. In addition to DB Instance hours, you are also billed for your monthly storage, I/O requests, and backups. If you scale your storage capacity within the billing period, your bill will be pro-rated accordingly.
Hosting Performance 