SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS using the 7 Rs migration strategy. The application is a monolithic Java application running on a single on-premises server with a MySQL database. The company wants to reduce operational overhead and improve scalability. The development team has already containerized the application and tested it locally. The company wants to run the containerized application on AWS without managing the underlying infrastructure. Which AWS service should the company use to deploy the containerized application?
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
✓
Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate launch type
Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate launch type is a serverless compute engine for containers, eliminating infrastructure management. Option B (EKS with managed node groups) still requires managing the node groups at the EC2 level. Option C (EC2 with Docker) requires managing EC2 instances. Option D (Lightsail containers) is not as scalable or integrated with AWS services as ECS with Fargate.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate launch type
Why this is correct
Amazon ECS with the Fargate launch type runs containers serverlessly, so no EC2 instances need provisioning, patching or scaling. This directly satisfies the stem's requirement to avoid managing underlying infrastructure while improving scalability, and it suits the already-containerised Java application without code changes.
- ✗
Amazon EKS with managed node groups
Why it's wrong here
EKS requires you to manage node groups, cluster upgrades and Kubernetes control-plane objects, so operational overhead remains. It suits teams needing Kubernetes APIs, portability or fine-grained orchestration across many services; a single containerised monolith gains nothing from that layer.
- ✗
Amazon EC2 with Docker installed
Why it's wrong here
EC2 with Docker leaves patching, scaling and host capacity entirely to you, contradicting the requirement to avoid managing infrastructure. It is the right choice when you need OS-level control, custom kernel modules or licensing tied to specific instances.
- ✗
Amazon Lightsail containers
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Lightsail containers are designed for simple, fixed-price container deployments, offering minimal operational overhead for straightforward applications. While they deploy containers without managing underlying infrastructure, their limited scaling capabilities make them unsuitable for an application explicitly seeking *improved* scalability, as required here. Lightsail containers provide fixed plans and restricted horizontal scaling, failing to meet the dynamic, high-scale needs of a migrating monolithic application. They would be appropriate for small, predictable workloads or development environments where cost simplicity outweighs advanced scalability requirements.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.