A development team stores application logs in CloudWatch Logs and has enabled detailed EC2 monitoring on every instance. Auditors only require 90 days of logs, and operations only needs 5-minute instance metrics. Which three changes would most directly reduce recurring monitoring costs while still meeting those requirements? Select three.

Keep CloudWatch Logs retention set to Never Expire.

Never Expire leaves every log event in CloudWatch Logs indefinitely, which increases recurring storage charges as the log volume grows. That directly conflicts with the stated 90-day retention requirement.

Enable high-resolution custom metrics for every request.

High-resolution metrics increase monitoring cost and are intended for use cases that require sub-minute observability. They are unnecessary when 5-minute instance metrics satisfy the operational need.

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Set CloudWatch Logs retention to 90 days. — The lowest-cost approach is to align monitoring spend with actual retention and granularity requirements. First, set CloudWatch Logs retention to 90 days so logs are not stored longer than needed for audit purposes. Second, downgrade EC2 monitoring to standard 5-minute metrics because detailed monitoring adds cost that operations does not need. Third, move older logs to S3 and apply lifecycle policies so historical data remains available at lower storage cost instead of staying in CloudWatch Logs. Keeping logs forever and enabling high-resolution metrics both increase recurring monitoring charges without meeting any additional requirement. They consume more paid storage and metric capacity than the team needs.

What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?

Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.