CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
A company has workloads that must remain on-premises due to data residency regulations but want to use the same AWS APIs, tools, and services they use in the cloud — including EC2, RDS, and S3 — on their on-premises hardware. Which AWS service enables this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse AWS Outposts with AWS Local Zones or Direct Connect, mistakenly thinking that a network connection or edge location alone provides the same on-premises service compatibility, when only Outposts actually runs the AWS infrastructure on customer-owned hardware.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS Outposts
AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to virtually any on-premises data center or co-location space. It allows customers to run EC2, RDS, and S3 locally on Outposts hardware while maintaining the same AWS control plane and APIs, satisfying data residency requirements without sacrificing cloud-native tooling.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Direct Connect
Why it's wrong here
AWS Direct Connect establishes a dedicated, private network link from your data center to an AWS Region, but it only transports data and does not deploy any AWS compute or storage hardware on your premises. It solves connectivity latency and bandwidth needs, not the requirement to run native AWS services locally. Thus, even with Direct Connect, your on-premises environment cannot execute EC2 or EBS with AWS-managed infrastructure.
- ✗
AWS Snow Family
Why it's wrong here
AWS Snow Family devices like Snowball and Snowcone are portable, temporary appliances used primarily for offline data migration or edge computing in remote sites. While Snowball Edge can run limited Amazon EC2 instances and Lambda functions, it is not designed as a permanent rack-based solution with the full breadth of AWS services. These devices are shipped back to AWS after the job, unlike a persistent on-premises AWS footprint.
- ✓
AWS Outposts
Why this is correct
AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that installs AWS-designed racks directly in your on-premises data center, allowing you to run Amazon EC2, EBS, ECS, EKS, and RDS using the same AWS APIs and tools you already use in the cloud. AWS owns, monitors, and manages the hardware while you retain control of the rack in your facility. This makes Outposts the only option here that delivers native AWS services as a permanent, integrated extension of the AWS cloud on your own premises.
- ✗
AWS Local Zones
Why it's wrong here
AWS Local Zones are edge locations that are owned and operated by AWS, placed in metropolitan areas to provide single-digit millisecond latency for workloads that must remain close to a specific population center. They are not installed in your own facility; rather, they are extensions of an AWS Region and are fully managed by AWS. Consequently, Local Zones do not address the use case of running AWS services on hardware that resides in the customer's on-premises data center.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.