A team stores application logs in an S3 bucket. They keep logs for 18 months for compliance. Access patterns: logs are heavily accessed during the first 30 days, rarely accessed between days 31 and 180, and almost never accessed after day 180. They currently store everything in S3 Standard and want to reduce storage cost without violating the 18-month retention requirement. What should they implement?

Leave logs in S3 Standard for 18 months and add a tag for internal reporting

Tagging does not reduce storage cost; the logs still remain in the most expensive class.

Immediately move all logs to Glacier Instant Retrieval and expire after 18 months

Instant Retrieval can be useful, but moving all logs immediately increases retrieval cost and may be inefficient for hot first-30-day access.

Enable versioning and rely on object lifecycle expiration to reduce costs; do not change storage classes

Versioning and expiration may change storage volume but it does not address the primary cost driver: storage class.

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Create an S3 lifecycle policy to transition logs to Standard-IA after 30 days and to Glacier Deep Archive after 180 days — S3 lifecycle policies can automatically transition objects to cheaper storage classes as their access frequency drops. Because logs are frequently accessed for the first 30 days, keeping them in S3 Standard initially is reasonable. After day 30, transitioning to S3 Standard-IA reduces cost for infrequent access. After day 180, moving to Glacier Deep Archive further reduces storage cost for nearly never-accessed objects, while continuing to retain them for the full 18-month requirement. Leaving logs in S3 Standard fails to reduce storage cost. Moving everything to a low-cost class immediately can increase retrieval costs and operational overhead for the “hot” first 30 days. Using versioning and expiration without changing storage class addresses retention duration but not the main storage cost optimization opportunity driven by access frequency.

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.