Cloud Digital Leader Scaling with Google Cloud operations Practice Question
A company wants to optimize Cloud Storage costs for a bucket containing 100 TB of access logs. The logs from the last 7 days are frequently analyzed; logs from 8–90 days are occasionally reviewed; logs older than 90 days are archived for compliance but rarely accessed. What is the most cost-effective storage class configuration?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that Archive storage is always the cheapest option, ignoring the retrieval costs and latency for frequently accessed data, leading candidates to choose Option D.
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 lifecycle rules: Standard (0-7 days) → Nearline (8-90 days) → Archive (90+ days).
It aligns the storage class with the access patterns of the logs: Standard for frequently accessed recent data, Nearline for occasional access, and Archive for rarely accessed compliance data. This minimizes costs by using cheaper storage for older data while maintaining performance for active analysis. Lifecycle rules automate the transition, ensuring no manual intervention is needed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Store all 100 TB in Standard storage for consistent access performance.
Why it's wrong here
Storing all 100 TB in Standard storage ignores the drastically different access frequency across the log lifecycle. While Standard offers sub-millisecond latency and no retrieval fees, paying full price for 90+ days of data that is only needed for compliance audits is wasteful. Lifecycle management can transition older data to colder tiers automatically, preserving access when needed at a fraction of the cost.
- ✓
Configure lifecycle rules: Standard (0-7 days) → Nearline (8-90 days) → Archive (90+ days).
Why this is correct
This is the correct approach because Cloud Storage lifecycle rules automate the transition of objects based on age, letting you match storage costs to real access patterns. The 0-7 day window in Standard supports immediate diagnosis and troubleshooting, the 8-90 day window in Nearline provides a low-cost option for occasional review, and the 90+ day window in Archive satisfies long-term compliance retention at the lowest possible storage price. Each class has different retrieval costs and minimum durations, and these boundaries align the cost structure with the operational and regulatory requirements.
- ✗
Delete all logs older than 7 days to minimize storage costs.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting logs older than 7 days directly violates the compliance requirement to retain logs for 90+ days. Storage cost is not the only factor: the organization is legally obligated to keep these records, and losing them could result in fines or legal penalties. A lifecycle policy lets you keep the data cheaply in Archive rather than deleting it, satisfying both cost optimization and retention mandates.
- ✗
Store all logs in Archive storage since most are rarely accessed.
Why it's wrong here
Archive storage is the cheapest per-GB storage class, but it has high retrieval costs and a 365-day minimum storage duration. If you store all logs there, the daily access to logs from the first 7 days would incur significant retrieval fees, and any early deletion would still be billed for the full year. Recent logs need frequent access, so they are better placed in Standard, while Archive should be reserved for data that will rarely be read but must be kept for compliance.
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
Learn chapter
Cloud Digital Transformation
Key term
Cloud storage
Cloud storage is a service that lets you save data on remote servers accessed over the internet instead of on your computer's hard drive.
Key term
Compliance
Compliance is the process of ensuring that an organization follows laws, regulations, standards, and internal policies that apply to its operations and data handling.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This GCDL practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud 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 GCDL exam.