- A
Configure each account to deliver logs to a central Amazon S3 bucket in a logging account, and use S3 Lifecycle policies to transition logs to Amazon S3 Glacier.
S3 is cost-effective for central log storage.
- B
Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose in each account to stream logs to a central Amazon S3 bucket.
Why wrong: Firehose adds unnecessary cost and complexity.
- C
Configure each account to deliver logs to its own S3 bucket and use S3 Replication to copy logs to a central bucket.
Why wrong: S3 Replication incurs additional costs.
- D
Send logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs in each account and use cross-account CloudWatch Logs subscription filters to forward logs to a central account.
Why wrong: CloudWatch Logs is more expensive for long-term storage.
Question 170 of 1,746
Scalable and Cost-Effective Centralized Logging for Multiple AWS Accounts
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design solutions for organizational complexity. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company wants to implement a centralized logging solution for all AWS accounts in AWS Organizations. The logs include CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, and AWS Config configuration items. Which approach provides the MOST scalable and cost-effective solution?
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 each account to deliver logs to a central Amazon S3 bucket in a logging account, and use S3 Lifecycle policies to transition logs to Amazon S3 Glacier.
Option A is correct because delivering logs from all accounts to a central Amazon S3 bucket in a logging account is the most scalable and cost-effective approach. S3 Lifecycle policies can automatically transition older logs to Amazon S3 Glacier, reducing storage costs while retaining data for compliance. This design avoids cross-account data transfer fees and minimizes operational overhead by using a single bucket with centralized access controls.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 each account to deliver logs to a central Amazon S3 bucket in a logging account, and use S3 Lifecycle policies to transition logs to Amazon S3 Glacier.
Why this is correct
S3 is cost-effective for central log storage.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose in each account to stream logs to a central Amazon S3 bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Firehose adds unnecessary cost and complexity.
- ✗
Configure each account to deliver logs to its own S3 bucket and use S3 Replication to copy logs to a central bucket.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Replication incurs additional costs.
- ✗
Send logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs in each account and use cross-account CloudWatch Logs subscription filters to forward logs to a central account.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs is more expensive for long-term storage.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often over-engineer the solution by choosing streaming services like Kinesis or CloudWatch Logs, thinking they are more scalable, but they fail to recognize that direct S3 delivery with Lifecycle policies is both more cost-effective and sufficiently scalable for centralized logging in AWS Organizations.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, AWS Organizations allows you to use AWS CloudFormation StackSets or AWS Control Tower to deploy S3 bucket policies across all accounts, enabling centralized log delivery without per-account manual configuration. S3 Lifecycle policies use the `Transition` action to move objects to Glacier after a specified number of days, and you can combine this with S3 Intelligent-Tiering for automatic cost optimization. In real-world scenarios, this approach is preferred for multi-account environments because it avoids the 5 TB default CloudWatch Logs retention limit and the per-GB costs of Kinesis or CloudWatch, while still supporting compliance requirements with object lock and encryption.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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 |
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAP-C02 question test?
Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — This question tests Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Configure each account to deliver logs to a central Amazon S3 bucket in a logging account, and use S3 Lifecycle policies to transition logs to Amazon S3 Glacier. — Option A is correct because delivering logs from all accounts to a central Amazon S3 bucket in a logging account is the most scalable and cost-effective approach. S3 Lifecycle policies can automatically transition older logs to Amazon S3 Glacier, reducing storage costs while retaining data for compliance. This design avoids cross-account data transfer fees and minimizes operational overhead by using a single bucket with centralized access controls.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
3 more ways this is tested on SAP-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is designing a centralized logging solution for multiple AWS accounts. The solution must meet compliance requirements that logs be immutable and stored for 7 years. Which THREE services should be combined to achieve this?
medium- A.AWS Glue
- ✓ B.S3 Object Lock
- ✓ C.AWS CloudTrail
- ✓ D.Amazon S3
- E.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Why B: S3 Object Lock is correct because it enforces a write-once-read-many (WORM) model on S3 objects, preventing any deletion or overwriting for a specified retention period. Combined with Amazon S3 for durable storage and AWS CloudTrail for logging API activity across accounts, this meets the 7-year immutability and retention compliance requirements.
Variation 2. A company is designing a centralized logging solution for multiple AWS accounts. They need to aggregate VPC Flow Logs, CloudTrail logs, and DNS logs from all accounts into a single S3 bucket. Which AWS service should be used to centralize the log collection?
easy- A.Amazon S3 cross-region replication
- B.Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
- ✓ C.AWS CloudTrail
- D.AWS Config
Why C: AWS CloudTrail can be configured to deliver logs from multiple accounts to a single S3 bucket by setting up a trail in the management account and using CloudTrail's organization trail feature. This automatically aggregates VPC Flow Logs, CloudTrail logs, and DNS logs from all member accounts into the designated centralized S3 bucket without requiring additional infrastructure.
Variation 3. A company has multiple AWS accounts that are centrally managed using AWS Organizations. The security team requires that all API activity be logged and retained for 7 years. The logs must be stored in a central Amazon S3 bucket that is in the management account. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?
easy- A.Enable CloudTrail in each account and use S3 Cross-Region Replication to copy logs to a central bucket.
- B.Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to stream CloudTrail logs from each account to a central S3 bucket.
- C.Enable CloudTrail in each account individually and configure log file delivery to a bucket in that account.
- ✓ D.Enable AWS CloudTrail in the management account with organization trail, and configure the trail to deliver logs to an S3 bucket in the management account.
Why D: Option D is correct because enabling an organization trail in the management account automatically applies CloudTrail to all accounts in the AWS Organization, delivering logs to a single S3 bucket in the management account without any per-account configuration or additional replication mechanisms. This meets the 7-year retention requirement with the least operational overhead, as the trail is centrally managed and logs are stored directly in the central bucket.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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