Lecture 10: Cloud Replicated DB, Aurora

The podcast features a detailed discussion of Amazon's Aurora database system, beginning with a historical overview of Amazon's cloud storage solutions, starting from EC2 with locally attached storage, transitioning to EBS, and then leading into RDS. The discussion covers the challenges of running databases on these systems, particularly focusing on fault tolerance and network limitations. The speaker then transitions into explaining the design and functionality of Aurora, emphasizing its use of quorums, log entries, and a specialized storage system to achieve high performance and fault tolerance. The podcast further explores how Aurora manages large databases by sharding data across multiple protection groups and the mechanisms for fast re-replication in case of server failures. The lecture concludes by discussing read-only replica databases and summarizing key takeaways regarding transaction processing, quorum systems, co-design of databases and storage, and insights into Amazon's cloud infrastructure concerns.