We need to work on our messaging! We're offering two different technologies: a fully managed MySQL as-a-service, and the new scalable database technology. But they're both relational databases in the service model.

With the MySQL-as-a-service 'traditional' tech, we take care of the backups, monitoring etc. We'll offer fully managed replication in future. As you say, these basic steps will make running MySQL much more attractive.

We've learned though, that there are still problems even here. You still have to think about how big your server should be. You still have to think about what happens when you outgrow the biggest server your cloud offers.

The new technology does scaling across machines in the same way that Cassandra promises, or that Oracle's Exadata does for relational DBs. It lets you start on a shared server and grow seamlessly to the point where you're running across multiple servers. But it's still early days for that tech (after all, lots of people still think it's impossible, despite the fact that Oracle is happily selling it!), and so we're not opening it up publicly yet, whereas the standard hosted MySQL is publicly available.