Multi-region: Cross-region read replicas (Enterprise Edition); cross-region automated backups for multi-region DR (Standard Edition 2)
Free Tier: None
Min cost: ~$55/month (BYOL, db.t3.small) or ~$85/month (License Included, db.t3.small)
Time to first query: 15-20 min (VPC + instance + Oracle configuration)
Key features: Oracle Database features (Data Guard, Multitenant, Partitioning, Advanced Compression, APEX, TDE, JVM; RAC not supported on RDS), automated backups, Multi-AZ, monitoring with CloudWatch and Database Insights, Oracle-native tools compatibility
Limitations: Oracle licensing cost, no RAC (use ODB@AWS for RAC), no serverless
Best for: Lift-and-shift Oracle migrations where the database cannot be modernized to Aurora right away. Teams with Oracle expertise but wanting to offload their operational burden with a fully-managed service.
Not for: New applications (use Aurora PostgreSQL or DSQL), cost-sensitive workloads, teams looking to move off commercial licensing (that’s a refactor to Aurora PostgreSQL)