Amazon RDS for SQL Server Developer Edition Adds Multi-AZ Support: What the Announcement Establishes

AWS announced Multi-AZ support using Always On Availability Groups for specified SQL Server Developer Editions.

The edition and version limits are clear, but regional availability, cost and failover results for a particular deployment need separate checks.

Data Center News & Trends

What did AWS announce?

Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports Multi-AZ deployments using Always On Availability Groups with SQL Server Developer Edition, according to AWS. Its announcement appeared in the source feed on September 24, 2026; that publication date does not establish a separate feature-launch date.

AWS says the configuration maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone and provides automatic failover during infrastructure failure. That describes supported behavior, not a measured failover time or uptime result for a particular deployment.

AWS — Amazon RDS supports Multi-AZ for SQL Server Developer Edition

Which editions and versions are included?

AWS names these boundaries for Multi-AZ with Always On Availability Groups:

• SQL Server Developer Edition 2019 and 2022: supported.
• SQL Server 2025 Enterprise Developer Edition: supported.
• SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer Edition: not supported.

AWS presents the capability as a way to build and test high-availability configurations, including failover behavior, in non-production environments. It says Developer Edition includes Enterprise Edition functionality without Enterprise Edition licensing costs. That licensing statement does not mean an RDS deployment has no other costs.

What must a team verify before relying on it?

The announcement does not report a deployment-specific failover test or achieved uptime. It also directs readers elsewhere for applicable AWS Regions and RDS for SQL Server pricing rather than providing a region list or a total-cost calculation.

For a proposed non-production test, the useful distinction is between eligibility and results:

• Confirm the exact edition and major version against AWS’s supported list.
• Check availability in the intended Region and the applicable RDS pricing.
• Test the required failover behavior in the environment where the configuration will be used.

Support for a configuration makes that test possible; it does not settle whether a particular deployment meets the team’s failover requirements.

Sources

• AWS — Amazon RDS supports Multi-AZ for SQL Server Developer Edition