AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Explanation

When using Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service), AWS manages the underlying infrastructure, which means:

• Hardware lifecycle management - Managed by AWS
• Server maintenance - Managed by AWS (including OS patching, database engine updates)
• Power, network, and cooling provisioning - Managed by AWS as part of the physical infrastructure

However, application optimization remains the customer's responsibility because:

• Application code optimization
• Database schema design
• Query performance tuning
• Application-level security
• Business logic implementation

This follows the AWS Shared Responsibility Model where AWS manages the infrastructure layer, while customers are responsible for what they put in the cloud, including application-level configurations and optimizations.