Amazon Web Services, a division of Amazon.com, unveiled its Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), which the company says will help streamline the process of setting up, operating, and scaling relational databases in the cloud.

"For almost two years, many AWS customers have taken advantage of the simplicity, reliability, and seamless scalability that Amazon SimpleDB provides; however, many customers have told us that their applications require a relational database. That’s why we built Amazon RDS, which combines a familiar relational database with automated management and the instant scalability of the AWS cloud," said Adam Selipsky, Vice President, Amazon Web Services.

Amazon added that the new service will include a fully featured MySQL database, and will automatically handle common database administration tasks like setup and provisioning, patch management, and backup duties. But perhaps the best part is that there will be no up-front investments required, and users will pay only for the resources they actually use.

To get started using Amazon RDS, as well as other Amazon Web services, visit http://aws.amazon.com.