AWS has ended RDS custom for Oracle. You next move matters

Migrating is the easy part to frame. What your team owns and operates after the migration is the decision that will outlast the deadline. There are three paths. They lead to very different places
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Migration assessment included at no extra cost. No commitment required.
12-Month Window
Action required before AWS end-of-life deadline

AWS has retired RDS custom for Oracle

RDS Custom for Oracle was built to bridge the gap between fully managed RDS, which restricts OS access, and fully self-managed EC2, which requires full operational ownership. It gave database teams OS-level access, custom configurations, and deeper Oracle control while keeping managed-service benefits.
AWS is now retiring it. Teams that built their Oracle infrastructure on RDS Custom must choose a new path. AWS’s official guidance points to one option: self-managed Oracle on Amazon EC2. That means your team takes back full operational ownership, including patching, HA configuration, backup management, OS maintenance, and licensing governance, permanently.
Standard RDS restricts OS access, removes OEM integration, and adds more constraints than RDS Custom. EC2 self-managed is operationally heavier than what your team was running today. There is a third option.
Standard RDS
No OS-level access
No native Oracle backups
No OEM integration
More restrictions than RDS Custom
EC2 Self-Managed
OS access retained, fully on your team
Manual patching, HA, DR
No managed service benefits
Significant DBA overhead increase
Higher total cost of ownership
Tessell
Fully managed patching, HA, DR
Full Oracle EBS support
Native backups + OEM integration
AWS, Azure, GCP – your choice, no lock-in
Standard RDS
No OS-level access

The migration path isn’t the difference. The destination is.

AWS’s official migration guidance and Tessell’s migration guidance both get you off RDS Custom. Where they take your team is not the same place.
EC2 Self-Managed
AWS’s official migration runs 18 steps – RMAN, Data Guard, TNS, parameter files, PDB state, object removal. Those steps are the beginning. Patching, HA, DR, backups, OS maintenance: permanently yours.
You land on a managed platform. Operations stay with Tessell.
The same 18 steps of database work happen. What’s different is what exists on the other side - full Oracle EBS support, native backups, OEM integration, multi-cloud portability. None of it on your team to build or run

The question isn’t just how you migrate. It’s where you land.

What you get after RDS Custom

Capability
OS-Level Access
Managed Patching / HA / DR
Performance (IOPS)
Native Oracle Backups
Third-Party Monitoring
OEM Integration
Cross-Region DR
IaC Support
Multi-Cloud
Data in Your Tenancy
FedRAMP Authorized
Zero-downtime migration
RDS Standard
Restricted
Partial
Max - 80k
No
Included
Supported
Included
Limited
AWS only
No
No
No
EC2 Self-Managed
Available
Manual
Varies
Manual setup
Manual
Manual
Manual
Manual
AWS only
Yes
No
No
Capability
Full access, governed and audited
Fully automated
2M–5M+ (NVMe)
Fully supported
Included
Native
Included
Terraform, Python, Go, Shell
AWS + Azure + GCP
Yes
Only Oracle PaaS with FedRAMP
Yes
Tessell migrates from RDS Custom using continuous Data Guard replication. Your source database stays live and fully accessible throughout. The final switchover takes seconds to minutes, with built-in rollback capability if anything requires attention before commit.
Tessell allows you to switch over to Cross Region DR for daily purposes and also switchback to the primary region without the need of rebuilding the instance.

What you get after RDS Custom

65%

Lower cost vs TCO

72.5%

Lower 3-year TCO

10x

Performance on NVMe vs commodity disk

5M+

IOPS on NVMe

75%

DBA effort reduction

3

Clouds supported: AWS, Azure, GCP

Why Oracle teams choose Tessell?

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65% Lower Cost Than RDS
Multi-DB consolidation, license optimization, and elimination of third-party tooling together deliver up to 72.5% lower 3-year TCO. Built for Tier-1, mission-critical Oracle workloads.

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10x Performance on NVMe
NVMe-backed storage at 2M to 5M+ IOPS, up to 25x more than RDS, at comparable cost. The performance gain does not require a hardware trade-off.

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Your Cloud, Your Control
Tessell deploys inside your own cloud tenancy, across all US regions. Your VPCs, your encryption keys, your security policies. Not Amazon’s visibility or control.

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FedRAMP Authorized
The only Oracle PaaS with FedRAMP authorization, covering all US regions. Trusted by two of the largest US federal agencies for mission-critical Oracle workloads.

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Migration Included
Tessell handles the full migration from RDS Custom at no extra cost using Data Guard, transportable tablespaces, or datapump depending on your environment.

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No New Lock-In
Run Oracle on AWS, Azure, and GCP from a single control plane. On Azure and GCP, Tessell is the only managed Oracle PaaS available.

Trusted by leading organizations worldwide

“Our migration of 500+ critical Oracle databases to Azure with Tessell was a major milestone in our transformation journey. Tessell’s managed service has already reduced complexity and costs.”

John Mola
AVP, Data and Analytics – CSX Technology

Built for regulated and complex environments

AWS has ended RDS Custom for Oracle. Choose your next path deliberately, not under deadline pressure.

Schedule a consultation to explore your Oracle environment on Tessell, including a TCO comparison. Migration included at no extra cost.
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