PCSE Practice Question: Managing Operations in a Cloud Solution Environment

Which Google Cloud service should be used for long-term archival of Audit Logs that must be immutable and stored for 10 years for compliance?

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 with Archive storage class and retention policy

Cloud Storage with Archive storage class offers the lowest cost for long-term storage, and retention policies enforce immutability.

Answer analysis

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
Cloud SQL with backups
Why it's wrong here
Cloud SQL is for relational databases, not log archival.
✓
Cloud Storage with Archive storage class and retention policy
Why this is correct
Archive storage class is low-cost for long-term storage, and retention policies prevent deletion.
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BigQuery with time-based partitioning
Why it's wrong here
BigQuery is not designed for long-term archival; costs can be high.
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Pub/Sub with message retention
Why it's wrong here
Pub/Sub retention is max 7 days, not suitable for 10-year archival.

Quick reference

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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