Data services.
THE OPTIONS
A database you install and manage yourself A managed database service
WHAT MANAGED SERVICES HANDLE
Installation Patching Backups, usually Scaling infrastructure
WHAT REMAINS YOURS
Your schema and queries Your data Access control Verifying backups are usable
THAT LAST POINT
Automatic backups you have never tested restoring are an assumption.
WHAT AFFECTS PERFORMANCE MOST
Query efficiency and indexing, not capacity.
WHY THAT MATTERS
Increasing resources to fix a slow query is expensive and usually ineffective.
WHAT TO CHECK BEFORE SCALING UP
Whether specific queries are the problem.
WHAT NEVER TO DO
Expose a database to the internet.
It should be reachable only from the application that uses it.
WHAT TO CONFIGURE
Restricted network access Strong credentials, not defaults Encryption
WHAT TO ESTABLISH
How you export the data, and how you restore it yourself.