SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question
A company stores critical data in an Amazon S3 bucket in the us-west-2 Region. The SysOps administrator needs to ensure that all objects are automatically replicated to another AWS Region for disaster recovery. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) must be less than 15 minutes, and existing objects must also be replicated. Which S3 feature should the administrator use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers choose S3 Event Notifications with Lambda (Option C) because it seems like a flexible custom solution, but they overlook the lack of a guaranteed RPO, the inability to replicate existing objects without additional effort, and the operational overhead compared to the managed, SLA-backed CRR with RTC.
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
✓
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) with Replication Time Control (RTC)
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) with Replication Time Control (RTC) is the correct choice because it provides automatic, asynchronous replication of objects to a different AWS Region, meeting the RPO of less than 15 minutes by guaranteeing replication within 15 minutes for most objects (99.99% of objects are replicated within 15 minutes). Additionally, CRR can replicate existing objects when configured with the appropriate replication rule and batch operations, satisfying the requirement to replicate all objects.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) with Replication Time Control (RTC)
Why this is correct
S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) with Replication Time Control (RTC) is the correct choice because CRR asynchronously copies objects from the source bucket in the US to a destination bucket in another AWS Region, satisfying the geographic disaster recovery requirement. RTC adds a guaranteed 15-minute replication SLA for 99.99% of objects, meeting the stated RPO. Additionally, CRR can be configured to replicate existing objects using S3 Batch Replication, while RTC provides monitoring via CloudWatch metrics and events, ensuring timely, trackable replication.
- ✗
S3 Same-Region Replication (SRR)
Why it's wrong here
S3 Same-Region Replication (SRR) replicates objects within the same AWS Region, so if the entire region becomes unavailable, the replica is lost along with the primary data. It is designed for use cases like aggregating logs or configuring data for resilience against individual bucket failures, not for disaster recovery across geographically distinct locations. Because the RPO and DR objectives require data to survive a regional outage, SRR does not fulfill the requirement, regardless of versioning or other enabling features.
- ✗
S3 Event Notifications with an AWS Lambda function to copy objects to another region
Why it's wrong here
Using S3 Event Notifications with a Lambda function to copy objects to another region is not an appropriate solution because event notifications only fire for new object creation events and do not automatically handle existing objects unless you separately trigger S3 Batch Operations. This custom replication path introduces operational overhead and potential failure points, as Lambda invocations can fail or be throttled, requiring you to build retry logic and monitor for gaps. It also lacks the native replication guarantee and RTC-driven 15-minute SLA that CRR provides, making it unreliable for meeting a strict RPO in a DR scenario.
- ✗
S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
S3 Transfer Acceleration is an incorrect choice because it only speeds up the upload of objects over long distances by using AWS edge locations and optimized network paths to the S3 bucket. It does not perform any kind of replication, copy, or synchronized data mirroring across regions; it simply improves the network throughput for clients uploading to a single bucket. While it might help you get initial data into S3 faster, it offers no automated DR protection and cannot ensure that data is copied to a different region for recovery.
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 SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.