AWS launches continuous replication for Database Migration Service

Public cloud infrastructure provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announced new functionality for its Database Migration Service, a tool for moving data from on-premises databases into AWS. Now organizations will be able to continuously port data into the Amazon cloud.

“Before today, replicating data was a one-shot hit, it was a one-shot migration,” said Matt Wood, general manager of product strategy at AWS, at the AWS Santa Clara Summit in California. The service can now work with MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft SQL Server databases, according to a blog post.

AWS introduced the Database Migration Service at its 2015 re:Invent conference in October and launched it out of preview in March.

Also today, Wood said that the Schema Conversion Tool, another feature announced in October, can now handle migrations of data from data warehouses. So organizations can send data from Teradata data warehouses and Oracle databases into the AWS Redshift cloud data warehouse, Wood said.

These updates are not massive, but they do help Amazon take some more steps forward as it competes with Google, Microsoft, IBM, and other technology companies pushing public clouds. Amazon has ruled this market for years, and adding features is one of a few tactics with which it strives to keep standing out. Other techniques include price cuts and geographical expansions.

AWS brought Amazon more than $2.5 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2016.