Amazon Web Services users can run Microsoft SQL Server either on AWS RDS (Relational Database Service) or AWS EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute). The former, being a managed service, offers more convenience; while the latter, being only infrastructure, offers greater flexibility and control. With either approach to AWS SQL Server deployment, AWS SQL Server replication is a common and important operational task. AWS SQL Server replication serves a variety of use cases including replication across server instances within RDS or EC2, or replication to other AWS services like Redshift (data warehousing), Elastic MapReduce (Hadoop-based big data analytics) or Glacier (cold archiving). AWS SQL Server replication may also be used to copy SQL Server data across AWS service regions in support of objectives like disaster recovery or reducing database latency for globally distributed user groups.

AWS SQL Server Replication the Qlik Way

Qlik Cloudbeam lets you implement AWS SQL Server replication easily, economically, and reliably.

Available through the AWS Marketplace, Qlik Cloudbeam allows you to configure and execute AWS SQL Server replication jobs and processes through a user-friendly GUI -- without doing any coding and without needing expertise in the source or destination interfaces. Cloudbeam provides unified support for all types of AWS SQL Server replication workflows, whether it's Amazon RDS replication within RDS, or cloud data transfer of SQL Server data across different Amazon services or regions. Cloudbeam also supports replicating data from AWS SQL Server deployments to your on-premises database systems or data warehouse systems – again without need for any manual coding.

CloudBeam's any-to-any versatility applies as well to replicating data from on-premises systems to AWS SQL Server systems, such as if you're migrating an on-premises SQL Server database to the cloud. More broadly, Qlik supports nearly any type of on-premises or cloud data integration across diverse systems including big data technologies like Hadoop.

Real-Time AWS SQL Server Replication with Qlik-Powered CDC

Ask today's IT managers "what is data replication?" and the answer is likely to steer toward the ability to replicate changed data from source to destination in real time. Qlik supports this modern replication objective with enterprise change data capture (CDC) technology that feeds that target system with the freshest data without hindering the performance of the source system. With a zero-footprint architecture that doesn't require agents on the source or target systems, Qlik log-based CDC for AWS SQL Server replication supports business objectives like real-time synchronization across AWS regions or real-time data warehousing and analytics.

For AWS Redshift data warehousing, Qlik Compose® (also available in the AWS Marketplace, and seamlessly integrated with Qlik Cloudbeam) solves the challenges that Redshift users commonly face in implementing AWS Redshift ETL. Qlik Compose automatically generates Redshift ETL code based on data warehousing design patterns that users configure or import through the Compose GUI. Compose and Cloudbeam together automate the end-to-end process of creating and populating a data warehouse in AWS Redshift.