SAP-C02 Question 257
Single answerA company runs a large-scale e-commerce application on AWS that experiences significant fluctuations in traffic. During peak traffic periods, the application faces latency issues due to database bottlenecks. The backend uses an Amazon RDS instance running MySQL for storing transactional data. The company wants to improve database performance during peak periods without over-provisioning resources or interrupting the application. Which solution would best address this requirement?
- A
Enable Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment to improve database performance during peak traffic.
- B
Use Amazon ElastiCache to cache frequently accessed data and reduce database load.
- C
Migrate the Amazon RDS database to Amazon Aurora for improved scalability and performance.
- D
Implement Amazon DynamoDB as the primary database to handle peak traffic more efficiently.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The best solution is to use Amazon ElastiCache to reduce database bottlenecks during peak traffic. By offloading frequently accessed or read-heavy data to an in-memory cache, the company can improve application performance without over-provisioning the database or interrupting the application. This approach is cost-effective, scalable, and minimally disruptive compared to other options.
- A. Incorrect.
Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment is designed for high availability and failover, not for improving database performance or reducing latency under heavy traffic. It would not address the issue of database bottlenecks.
- B. Correct.
Amazon ElastiCache (e.g., Redis or Memcached) provides in-memory caching, which can significantly reduce the load on the database by caching frequently accessed or read-heavy data. This approach can improve performance during peak traffic without over-provisioning resources.
- C. Incorrect.
While Amazon Aurora is a highly scalable and performant database option, migrating to Aurora may require significant changes and downtime, which the company wants to avoid. Aurora also does not inherently reduce traffic bottlenecks unless paired with other optimizations like caching.
- D. Incorrect.
Amazon DynamoDB is a NoSQL database that is highly scalable, but it is not compatible with the existing MySQL-based transactional schema of the application. Migrating to DynamoDB would require a complete redesign of the database and application, which is not feasible in this scenario.