SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is planning to migrate a web application to AWS. The application currently runs on a single on-premises server with a few thousand users. The company wants to use a managed container service and minimize operational overhead. Which AWS service should the company use to run the application?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests whether candidates equate 'managed container service' with EKS, when the requirement to minimize operational overhead points to ECS with Fargate rather than Kubernetes.
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
Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate is the right choice because it is a managed container service that runs containers without requiring the company to provision or manage EC2 instances, minimizing operational overhead. Fargate handles the underlying compute, scaling, and patching, so the team focuses on the application. For a few thousand users, this is a good fit without the complexity of Kubernetes.
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 EKS
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EKS introduces the overhead of managing a Kubernetes control plane and worker nodes, contradicting the requirement to minimise operational overhead for a small-scale application with a few thousand users. It is tempting because EKS is a managed container service, but its complexity is justified only when orchestrating large, distributed microservices that need advanced scaling and self-healing, not for a simple single-server workload.
- ✗
AWS Lambda
Why it's wrong here
AWS Lambda runs event-driven functions, not long-running containerised web applications, so it cannot host the existing container image without re-architecture. Lambda suits sporadic, short-lived function invocations; the stem's requirement for a managed container service points to Amazon ECS or EKS with Fargate.
- ✗
Amazon EC2
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EC2 provides raw virtual machines, so the company would still patch, scale and manage the container runtime itself, contradicting the minimise-operational-overhead requirement. EC2 is the right choice when full OS-level control or bespoke networking is needed, not for a managed container platform.
- ✓
Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate
Why this is correct
AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers, so ECS tasks run without provisioning or managing EC2 instances. This satisfies the stem's requirement to minimise operational overhead while using a managed container service for the web application.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.