SAA-C03 Question 375
Single answerA startup is running a web application on Amazon EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone. They store user-uploaded files in an Amazon EBS volume attached to one of the instances. The company is experiencing rapid growth and expects their storage needs to scale significantly. They want to improve their application’s availability, reduce costs, and simplify storage management. Which solution is the most cost-optimized and scalable?
- A
Move the user-uploaded files to an Amazon S3 bucket and enable S3 Lifecycle policies for cost management.
- B
Upgrade the Amazon EBS volume to a larger size and replicate it across Availability Zones using snapshots.
- C
Move the user-uploaded files to an Amazon EFS file system and configure it for Standard-IA storage class.
- D
Attach a second Amazon EBS volume to the existing EC2 instance to increase storage capacity.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
Amazon S3 is a highly durable and scalable storage service that is ideal for storing user-uploaded files at a low cost. By enabling S3 Lifecycle policies, the company can further optimize costs by transitioning objects to lower-cost storage classes as they age. This approach also improves availability and eliminates the dependency on a single EC2 instance and EBS volume, making it the most cost-optimized solution.
- A. Correct.
Storing user-uploaded files in Amazon S3 is the most cost-efficient solution for scalable storage. S3 is designed for high availability and durability, and S3 Lifecycle policies can help optimize costs by transitioning objects to lower-cost storage classes as they age.
- B. Incorrect.
While upgrading the EBS volume increases storage capacity, it is not cost-efficient for large-scale or rapidly growing storage needs. Additionally, EBS volumes are tied to a single Availability Zone, which limits availability and scalability.
- C. Incorrect.
Amazon EFS provides scalable file storage for EC2 instances, but it is more expensive than S3 for storing user-uploaded files. Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) is designed for specific use cases and may not be cost-optimized for all workloads.
- D. Incorrect.
Attaching a second EBS volume increases storage capacity but does not address availability or scalability. It is also not cost-optimized compared to using Amazon S3 for large-scale storage.