Answer: Migrate to Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server. Use read replicas for reporting purposes

## Explanation **Correct Answer: A** **Why Option A is correct:** 1. **Managed Service**: Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server is a fully managed relational database service that minimizes operational overhead. AWS handles database administration tasks like provisioning, patching, backup, recovery, and scaling. 2. **Read Replicas**: RDS supports read replicas that can offload reporting workloads from the primary database, improving performance for both transactional and analytical processing. 3. **SQL Server Compatibility**: Since the company is already using Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise edition, migrating to RDS for SQL Server provides the smoothest migration path without requiring application changes. 4. **Reduced Operational Overhead**: This solution aligns perfectly with the requirement to "reduce operational overhead by moving to managed services wherever possible." **Why other options are incorrect:** **Option B (Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon EC2):** - This requires managing EC2 instances, which means the company would be responsible for OS patching, database installation, configuration, backup, and recovery. - Higher operational overhead compared to RDS. - While Always On read replicas can be used, this solution doesn't minimize operational overhead as requested. **Option C (Amazon DynamoDB):** - DynamoDB is a NoSQL database, not a relational database like SQL Server. - Migrating from SQL Server to DynamoDB would require significant application changes and data model redesign. - DynamoDB is not suitable for complex SQL queries and transactional processing that SQL Server applications typically require. - This would create high migration complexity and operational overhead during transition. **Option D (Amazon Aurora MySQL):** - Aurora MySQL is a MySQL-compatible database, not SQL Server compatible. - Migrating from SQL Server to MySQL would require significant application changes, schema conversion, and potential data type mapping issues. - While Aurora is a managed service, the migration effort and application changes would create substantial operational overhead. **Key Considerations:** - The requirement emphasizes "LEAST operational overhead" - this means choosing the most managed solution that requires minimal changes. - RDS for SQL Server provides the best balance of managed service benefits while maintaining compatibility with existing SQL Server applications. - Read replicas effectively separate transactional and analytical workloads, improving performance without requiring separate database technologies.

Author: LeetQuiz Editorial Team