SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating its data warehouse from on-premises to Amazon Redshift. The current on-premises data warehouse runs on a proprietary MPP system. The company wants to minimize downtime and ensure data consistency. The company has a large volume of historical data (30 TB) and daily incremental updates of 10 GB. Which migration approach should the company use?
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
✓
Use AWS Snowball to transfer the historical data to Amazon S3, then use AWS DMS with ongoing CDC to replicate incremental changes until cutover
Using AWS DMS with CDC for incremental data allows zero-downtime migration by keeping the target in sync. A bulk export/import approach requires downtime for the final load. Using Snowball for historical data and DMS for incremental updates is efficient for large datasets.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use AWS Snowball to transfer the historical data to Amazon S3, then use AWS DMS with ongoing CDC to replicate incremental changes until cutover
Why this is correct
Correct. Snowball handles large historical data transfer efficiently, and DMS CDC keeps the target updated with minimal downtime.
- ✗
Use an ETL tool to extract data from the source and load directly into Amazon Redshift during a maintenance window
Why it's wrong here
This approach requires a long maintenance window and does not minimize downtime.
- ✗
Perform a full export of the on-premises database to flat files, transfer them over the network, and load into Amazon Redshift
Why it's wrong here
Full export/transfer over the network for 30 TB is slow and requires downtime.
- ✗
Use AWS DMS with full load only, then schedule a downtime window for the final sync
Why it's wrong here
Without CDC, changes after the full load are lost, requiring a longer downtime window.
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