Amazon RDS for MariaDB supports Innovation Release 11.8 in Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment

[Amazon RDS for MariaDB](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/mariadb/) now supports MariaDB Innovation Release 11.8 in the [Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/databasepreview/), allowing you to evaluate the latest Innovation Release on Amazon RDS for MariaDB. You can deploy MariaDB 11.8 in the Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment that has the benefits of a fully managed database, making it simpler to set up, operate, and monitor databases. MariaDB 11.8 is the latest Innovation Release from the MariaDB community, and includes support for [vector datatype, indexing, and search capabilities](https://mariadb.com/kb/en/vector-overview/). MariaDB Innovation releases are supported by the community until the next Innovation release, whereas MariaDB Long Term Maintenance Releases, such as MariaDB 10.11 and MariaDB 11.4, are supported by the community for up to five years. Please refer to the [MariaDB 11.8 release notes](https://mariadb.com/kb/en/what-is-mariadb-118/) and [Amazon MariaDB user guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/MariaDB.Concepts.VersionMgmt.html) for more details about this release. Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment supports both Single-AZ and Multi-AZ deployments on the latest generation of instance classes. Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment database instances are retained for a maximum period of 60 days and are automatically deleted after the retention period. Amazon RDS database snapshots that are created in the preview environment can only be used to create or restore database instances within the preview environment. Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment database instances are [priced the same as production RDS instances created in the US East (Ohio) Region](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/mysql/pricing/).