PAS-C01 Migration Practice Question
An organization is migrating a large on-premises data lake (500 TB) to Amazon S3. The migration must complete within 2 weeks. The network bandwidth is 1 Gbps. Which AWS service should be used?
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
✓
AWS Snowball Edge
(AWS Direct Connect with 10 Gbps) would require 10 Gbps bandwidth, but the organization only has 1 Gbps available, and provisioning a 10 Gbps connection takes weeks, so it cannot meet the 2-week timeline. Option B (DMS) is designed for database migrations, not large data lakes. Option C (S3 Transfer Acceleration) improves transfer speed over the internet but with only 1 Gbps bandwidth, it would still take over 50 days to transfer 500 TB, exceeding the 2-week deadline. Option D (AWS Snowball Edge) is a physical device that can transfer 500 TB in about 10 days (including shipping), making it the correct choice given the bandwidth constraint and time requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Direct Connect with a 10 Gbps connection
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect may take weeks to provision and might not meet the deadline.
- ✗
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why it's wrong here
DMS is for database migration, not file data.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
Even with acceleration, 1 Gbps is insufficient for 500 TB in 2 weeks.
- ✓
AWS Snowball Edge
Why this is correct
Snowball Edge provides physical devices that can transfer large volumes quickly.
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
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JA
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.