Sure, those things can be a pain if you're relatively new to MySQL administration. But luckily there's a huge wealth of automation options released by some of t

Sure, those things can be a pain if you're relatively new to MySQL administration. But luckily there's a huge wealth of automation options released by some of the world's largest web sites. One of MySQL's greatest strengths is the maturity of its ecosystem. Tons of existing automation, a relatively large number of skilled developers you can hire, multiple dedicated conferences, good free online docs, dozens of books, several top-notch consulting firms for handling the crazy edge cases. I'll readily admit that MySQL has its flaws, but personally I wouldn't rank difficulty of maintenance operations high on the list... at least from a practical perspective, and relative to other comparable data stores used at a massive scale. In my experience, no matter what databases you choose, if you "go big" you can't ever escape the need for robust automation and a decent amount of in-house talent.