Inside Aurora DSQL: How AWS Blew Up the Monolithic Database

Aurora DSQL: Scalable, Multi-Region OLTP

Having spent two years with the AWS team building Aurora DSQL, I explain how we replaced the traditional monolithic database with independent, horizontally scalable services. By leveraging synchronized clocks and optimistic concurrency control, the system achieves zero-round-trip consistent reads and eliminates the slow lock holder problem. While this aggressive architecture offers predictable latency and strong consistency, it requires developers to accept smaller transaction limits and handle write conflicts differently.