SAA-C03 Design Cost-Optimized Architectures Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  Store the data in Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive immediately after creation.

  Why it's wrong here

  Storing data directly in S3 Glacier Deep Archive upon creation is generally not cost-optimized if there's any chance of initial access. This storage class is designed for long-term archives with retrieval times measured in hours and incurs significant retrieval costs, making it unsuitable for data that might be accessed even infrequently in its early lifecycle.

• ✓

  Use Amazon S3 lifecycle policies to transition data from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days.

  Why this is correct

  This is a highly effective cost optimization strategy. Initially storing data in S3 Standard allows for immediate, frequent access. After 30 days, when data access typically decreases, a lifecycle policy automatically transitions the data to the much cheaper S3 Glacier Deep Archive, ensuring long-term retention at the lowest possible cost while accommodating initial access needs.

• ✓

  Enable S3 Intelligent-Tiering to automatically move data between access tiers based on usage patterns.

  Why this is correct

  S3 Intelligent-Tiering is an excellent cost optimization choice for data with unknown or changing access patterns. It automatically moves objects between frequent, infrequent, and archive access tiers without performance impact or operational overhead, ensuring data is always in the most cost-effective tier based on actual usage.

• ✗

  Store all data in Amazon EBS gp2 volumes attached to an EC2 instance for low-latency access.

  Why it's wrong here

  Storing large datasets on EBS gp2 volumes attached to an EC2 instance is not a cost-optimized solution for general data storage. EBS is block storage designed for single-instance, low-latency application needs, not scalable object storage. It incurs EC2 compute costs and is significantly more expensive per GB than S3 for large, infrequently accessed datasets, lacking S3's inherent durability and scalability.

• ✓

  Use S3 Object Lock in compliance mode to prevent data deletion during the retention period.

  Why this is correct

  S3 Object Lock in compliance mode provides robust data immutability, preventing any user, including the root account, from deleting or overwriting an object for a specified retention period. This feature is critical for meeting stringent regulatory compliance requirements and ensuring data integrity against accidental or malicious actions.

• ✗

  Replicate all data to a second AWS Region using S3 Cross-Region Replication to ensure durability.

  Why it's wrong here

  While S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) enhances disaster recovery capabilities by providing a copy in a separate geographical region, S3 Standard already offers 11 nines of durability within a single region. Replicating all data to a second region solely for "durability" is redundant and doubles storage costs, making it an inefficient and non-cost-optimized approach when S3's inherent durability is already extremely high.