SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has a multi-account AWS environment with a centralized logging account. They want to collect VPC Flow Logs from all accounts and store them in a centralized S3 bucket in the logging account. What is the MOST scalable and cost-effective solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume Kinesis Data Firehose is the most scalable streaming solution, but for VPC Flow Logs delivered to S3, direct S3 delivery with CRR is simpler, more cost-effective, and avoids unnecessary streaming costs and complexity.
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
✓
Configure VPC Flow Logs to deliver to an S3 bucket in each account, then enable S3 Cross-Region Replication to the central bucket in the logging account.
VPC Flow Logs can be delivered directly to an S3 bucket in each account, and S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) can then automatically and asynchronously replicate the logs to a centralized bucket in the logging account. This approach is highly scalable (CRR handles replication without any custom code or infrastructure) and cost-effective (no additional compute or streaming services are needed; you only pay for S3 storage and replication costs).
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Configure VPC Flow Logs to deliver to an S3 bucket in each account, then enable S3 Cross-Region Replication to the central bucket in the logging account.
Why this is correct
S3 replication is serverless, cost-effective, and scales automatically.
- ✗
Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose in each account to stream logs to a central S3 bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Firehose incurs per-GB costs and is more expensive than S3 replication for this use case.
- ✗
Create a Lambda function in each account that copies log files to the central bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Lambda functions per account increase management overhead and cost.
- ✗
Use S3 Batch Operations to copy logs from each account to the central bucket daily.
Why it's wrong here
Batch operations are not real-time and require manual or scheduled initiation.
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 |
Go deeper
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAP-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 SAP-C02 exam.