SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A small business is migrating its on-premises infrastructure to AWS. The current environment consists of two VMs running a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and a separate file server. The business has limited IT staff and wants to minimize operational overhead. They also want to ensure high availability for the web application. The company has a modest budget and is looking for a cost-effective solution. You need to design the migration. Which approach should be taken?
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 Elastic Beanstalk to deploy the web application. Use Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ for the database. Use S3 for file storage.
The best approach because AWS Elastic Beanstalk provides a managed platform for the web application, reducing operational overhead. Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ ensures high availability for the database with automatic failover. Using S3 for file storage is cost-effective and scalable. Option A (EC2 Auto Scaling with ALB) requires more management than Elastic Beanstalk. Option B (Lightsail on a single instance) does not provide high availability. Option D (ECS Fargate) introduces containerization complexity and higher cost, which is not ideal for a small business with limited IT staff and a modest budget.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Migrate the VMs to two EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an ALB. Use RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ.
Why it's wrong here
Requires more management of EC2 instances.
- ✗
Use Amazon Lightsail to host the entire application on a single instance with a managed database.
Why it's wrong here
Single instance is not highly available.
- ✓
Use AWS Elastic Beanstalk to deploy the web application. Use Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ for the database. Use S3 for file storage.
Why this is correct
Minimizes operational overhead and provides high availability.
- ✗
Containerize the application and run on Amazon ECS with Fargate. Use Amazon RDS for MySQL.
Why it's wrong here
While containerisation with Amazon ECS and Fargate offers excellent scalability and reduced operational overhead for stateless applications, it introduces a new layer of complexity in managing the container orchestration and image building processes. This is likely to increase the burden on the business's limited IT staff, contradicting the requirement to minimise operational overhead. This approach would be ideal for a business with a mature DevOps practice, seeking granular control and efficient resource utilisation for microservices or applications designed for containerisation.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every SAP-C02 question from scratch — 1,660 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.