Distributed Relational Database Service (DRDS) is a lightweight (stateless), flexible, stable, and efficient middleware product independently developed by Alibaba Group to resolve scalability issues with single-host relational databases. With its compatibility with mysql protocols and syntaxes, DRDS enables database/table sharding, smooth scaling, configuration upgrade/downgrade, transparent read/write splitting, and distributed transactions, providing O&M capabilities for distributed databases throughout their entire lifecycle.

DRDS is mainly applied to large-scale online data operations. By taking into account how the service is split up, DRDS provides an efficient way to perform the operations, which meets the demand of the online services of relational databases.

DRDS mainly solves the following problems:

• Bottleneck on single-host database capacity: As the data size and access volume keep increasing, single-host databases are facing great challenges that cannot be completely resolved by upgrading hardware.
• Difficulties with expansion of single-host databases: Expansion of traditional databases often results in service interruption.
• High cost of traditional databases: When service data and access volume reach a certain level, traditional databases must rely on specific high-end storage devices and mid-range computers to keep working, which dramatically increases the cost.

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