PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
A company is running SAP on AWS and needs to back up their SAP HANA database daily. The backup must be stored cost-effectively and retained for 7 years for compliance. Which AWS service should be used for long-term backup storage?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse 'long-term backup storage' with 'frequent access needs' and select Amazon S3 Standard or Amazon EBS Snapshots, overlooking the cost implications of retaining data for 7 years, or they mistakenly think S3 One Zone-IA is suitable for compliance data despite its lack of multi-AZ resilience and higher cost compared to Glacier Deep Archive.
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 S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the correct choice because it provides the lowest-cost storage for long-term archival data, with retrieval times ranging from 12 to 48 hours, which is acceptable for a daily backup retained for 7 years. This service is specifically designed for compliance and regulatory retention where infrequent access is expected, making it the most cost-effective option for the given requirements.
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 S3 One Zone-IA
Why it's wrong here
Lower durability, not suitable for long-term retention.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Standard
Why it's wrong here
S3 Standard is too expensive for 7-year retention.
- ✓
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Why this is correct
Most cost-effective for long-term archival.
- ✗
Amazon EBS Snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Not designed for long-term archival, higher cost.
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 |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PAS-C01 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 PAS-C01 exam.