Cassandra in particular doesn&#x27;t compete with RDS as much as DynamoDB and, respectfully, setting up failover and monitoring and autosnapshotting isn&#x27;t actually that difficult. I&#x27;m a big fan of outsourcing that stuff--the new system I&#x27;m building uses AWS Lambda, for example--but when using a managed solution requires compromising on features or tying yourself into knots to make things work, hosting your own is doable, especially in the age of devops. Automation is your friend!