[tshaddox]

> RDS is ultimately a solution for people who look in the mirror and confidently say "you don't know how to run a database."

In the same way that a RDBMS is ultimately a solution for people who look in the mirror and confidently say “you don’t know how to directly write to disc while guaranteeing the validity of relational data in spite of concurrent writes, power failures, etc.”

[mike_d]

Absolutely spot on comparison. For some people, RDS is the corner stone of their business. For others even a failed database can be rebuilt from logs within hours and it isn't business impacting.

Use the tools that make sense, but don't be afraid to pick the right tool.