Aurora DSQL: How the Latest Distributed SQL Database Compares to YugabyteDB

Aurora DSQL, introduced by Amazon at re:Invent 2024, marks AWS's entry into the distributed SQL database market, positioning itself as a serverless, distributed SQL database optimized for transactional workloads with high availability and automatic scaling. It leverages PostgreSQL code to enhance compatibility, similar to YugabyteDB, which was the first to do so. Aurora DSQL's architecture disaggregates compute, storage, and I/O, incorporating features like an active-active multi-region design and optimistic concurrency control to minimize latency and enhance performance. However, it sacrifices some PostgreSQL features such as foreign keys and sequences for scalability, requiring developers to adapt their applications accordingly. In contrast, YugabyteDB offers broader PostgreSQL compatibility and flexibility across cloud environments, using Raft-based replication for data distribution, which supports a variety of isolation levels and maintains transactional resilience. While both databases emphasize the growing importance of distributed SQL, Aurora DSQL is tailored for AWS-native applications, whereas YugabyteDB caters to broader deployment needs, illustrating different approaches to achieving high performance and horizontal scalability in cloud-native infrastructures.