By Alibaba Cloud Academy: Interested to learn more about Alibaba Cloud? Check out our course on how to Operate and Manage a Relational Database course and get certified today! In this blog, we will talk about the benefits of using a cloud database. So let's first discuss about the old-fashioned way of running a database. First, you have to purchase and set up the hardware, and then install the operating system, install the database software during configuration, and finally do some tweaking. Once you get the database to work, it would have taken you 3 to 5 hours. What's worse, if you made any misconfigurations or if you need to update your physical server, you'll have to repeat the process from scratch. Thankfully, you can also build your own database using a cloud service such as Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS). All you need to do is purchase a cloud server with the desired OS pre-installed, and then follow a similar process as before to get the database to work. While it's much easier and less your cost, but it still will take fifty to ninety minutes. And finally, there's a better option – cloud databases. Services like Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL provides a fully hosted online database service that can be launched within minutes from your computer. RDS is a complete database solution that includes backup, recovery, monitoring, migration, and a comprehensive suite of database-optimized functions that allow you to focus on developing better applications. Cost Savings with Cloud Databases: In the earlier section, we just talked about how a PaaS-like service can help you and your business to speed up deployment. So now let's take a look at the benefits of cloud databases in terms of costs. Without the cloud, the first noticeable cost would be hardware. The process of procuring and setting up servers is not just time consuming, it is costly. Once you've set up everything, then comes the O&M costs. This will typically start from physical networking, to a more abstract or functional one. For instance, you'll need to be able to connect different parts of the servers to achieve proper virtualization, including storage, middleware, OS, runtime data, and application. This typically involves hiring a technical expert, typically a DBA (database admin), and possibly additional costs on third party software licenses to manage these components effectively. But if you use PaaS, which is a Platform as a Service, you only need to take care of the application and data. So what are the O&M costs that you really need to take care of when using our RDS? Well, you have to make sure your database works as the way you planned and that it is giving you the right customer insights. You also have to take care of service-related tasks, such as advanced security settings and some additional settings. But with all that being said, the bottom line is cloud databases lets you focus on what matters most for your business. If you need to set up clusters, do horizontal scaling, or set up basic security and monitoring features, well, you don't have to – ApsaraDB RDS provides them in default. There is no doubt that services like ApsaraDB RDS gives users significant competitive advantages of over user-created databases. 5 More Reasons to Use Cloud Databases: Still not convinced that cloud databases are for you? Well, here are five compelling reasons for you to consider making the switch: You do not need to purchase database server hardware or software. You can create RDS instances through the RDS console or APIs within a few minutes. You can upgrade or downgrade instance specifications as needed to make sure that you are only using the resources you require. You can operate RDS databases in the way you operate your own database engines. Alibaba Cloud guarantees the normal operation of RDS through routine maintenance and management, such as hardware/software fault processing and database patch upgrades. Ready to test your knowledge? Take the Operate and Manage a Relational Database course and get certified today!