A healthcare company needs to store patient medical records that must be retained for 10 years to comply with regulatory requirements. These records are accessed very rarely, only in the event of an audit or legal request. Which Amazon S3 storage class is the MOST cost-effective choice for this data?
Trap 1: S3 Standard
S3 Standard is designed for frequently accessed data and provides low latency and high throughput. It is not cost-effective for data that is rarely accessed over a decade, as the storage costs are much higher than archival classes.
Trap 2: S3 Intelligent-Tiering
S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between access tiers based on usage patterns. While it can optimize costs for unknown or changing access patterns, it includes a monitoring and automation fee that makes it less economical for data that is known to be rarely accessed for long periods.
Trap 3: S3 One Zone-IA
S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single Availability Zone and is designed for infrequently accessed data. It has lower storage costs than Standard, but it does not provide the high durability (99.999999999%) needed for critical compliance records, and the retrieval costs are higher than Glacier Deep Archive for rare access.
- A
S3 Standard
Why wrong: S3 Standard is designed for frequently accessed data and provides low latency and high throughput. It is not cost-effective for data that is rarely accessed over a decade, as the storage costs are much higher than archival classes.
- B
S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Why wrong: S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between access tiers based on usage patterns. While it can optimize costs for unknown or changing access patterns, it includes a monitoring and automation fee that makes it less economical for data that is known to be rarely accessed for long periods.
- C
S3 One Zone-IA
Why wrong: S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single Availability Zone and is designed for infrequently accessed data. It has lower storage costs than Standard, but it does not provide the high durability (99.999999999%) needed for critical compliance records, and the retrieval costs are higher than Glacier Deep Archive for rare access.
- D
S3 Glacier Deep Archive
S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the lowest-cost S3 storage class, designed for long-term retention of data that is accessed extremely rarely (e.g., once or twice per year). It provides secure and durable storage with retrieval times of 12-48 hours, making it the most cost-effective choice for regulatory archives with a 10-year retention requirement.