hardMultiple Choice
Google PCA Practice Question: Store archival data that is accessed less than…
A company needs to store archival data that is accessed less than once a year, with retrieval times of up to 12 hours acceptable. The data must be kept for 10 years for compliance. What is the most cost-effective Cloud Storage solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse 'retention policy' (which prevents deletion) with 'lifecycle policy' (which automates deletion), leading them to choose Coldline or Nearline with a retention policy, missing that Archive class with a lifecycle delete rule is the most cost-effective and compliant 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
✓
Cloud Storage Archive class with a lifecycle policy that deletes objects after 10 years
Cloud Storage Archive class is the most cost-effective option for data accessed less than once a year with retrieval times up to 12 hours, as it offers the lowest storage cost among Google Cloud Storage classes. A lifecycle policy that deletes objects after 10 years ensures compliance with the retention requirement without incurring ongoing storage costs beyond the mandated period.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cloud Storage Coldline class with a retention policy
Why it's wrong here
Coldline's 90-day minimum storage duration and per-object retrieval fees make it costlier than Archive for data touched less than yearly, where 12-hour retrieval is acceptable. Coldline suits data accessed roughly quarterly, where its faster millisecond retrieval justifies the higher storage rate.
- ✗
Cloud Storage Nearline class
Why it's wrong here
Nearline offers retrieval in seconds to hours, not the 12-hour tolerance stated, and its per-gigabyte storage cost exceeds colder classes. It is tempting as a low-cost archive tier, but it would be correct for data accessed monthly or quarterly, not for sub-annual compliance archives.
- ✓
Cloud Storage Archive class with a lifecycle policy that deletes objects after 10 years
Why this is correct
Archive class offers the lowest storage price with retrieval within 12 hours, matching the stem's acceptable retrieval window. A lifecycle policy deleting objects after 10 years satisfies the compliance retention requirement, making this the most cost-effective option.
- ✗
Cloud Storage Standard class with object versioning
Why it's wrong here
Standard class carries the highest per-gigabyte storage price and no early-deletion penalty, so retaining 10 years of rarely accessed archives accrues maximum cost. Standard is intended for frequently accessed, latency-sensitive data such as serving website assets, not compliance archives.
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
Data Migration and Transfer Services
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
Data
Data is raw, unprocessed information, like numbers, words, or measurements, that can be stored, processed, and analyzed by computers.
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