SAP-C02 Question 323
Select 3A company is running a web application that uses Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application handles variable traffic patterns, leading to underutilized EC2 instances during low-traffic periods and performance issues during traffic spikes. The company wants to optimize costs while maintaining consistent application performance. As a Solutions Architect, which actions should you recommend?
- A
Implement Auto Scaling with a target tracking scaling policy to dynamically adjust the number of EC2 instances based on traffic patterns.
- B
Switch from the Application Load Balancer to a Network Load Balancer to reduce costs associated with load balancing.
- C
Move the web application to AWS Lambda and use Amazon API Gateway to handle HTTP requests.
- D
Purchase Reserved Instances for the EC2 instances to lower instance costs over a long-term commitment.
- E
Enable Spot Instances for non-critical workloads within the Auto Scaling group to reduce instance costs.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: A, C, E
Explanation
The correct options focus on leveraging AWS services and features that optimize costs while addressing the application's variable traffic patterns. Auto Scaling with target tracking dynamically adjusts resources to match demand, reducing costs during low traffic. AWS Lambda with API Gateway provides a cost-effective, serverless alternative for highly variable workloads. Spot Instances allow the use of low-cost capacity for non-critical workloads, further reducing costs. These solutions align with the company's goals of cost optimization and consistent performance while not overcommitting to resources or features that do not address variability.
- A. Correct.
Implementing Auto Scaling with a target tracking scaling policy ensures that the number of EC2 instances adjusts dynamically based on traffic, reducing costs during low-traffic periods and improving performance during traffic spikes. This aligns with the company's requirement for cost optimization and consistent performance.
- B. Incorrect.
Switching to a Network Load Balancer may not reduce costs meaningfully for this use case, as the ALB is already optimized for HTTP/HTTPS traffic and provides Layer 7 routing, which is critical for web applications. This option does not address the variability in traffic or cost optimization effectively.
- C. Correct.
Moving the web application to AWS Lambda, a serverless solution, eliminates the need for EC2 instances altogether. This approach can significantly reduce costs and automatically handle variable traffic patterns, achieving both cost optimization and consistent performance.
- D. Incorrect.
Purchasing Reserved Instances can lower costs, but it requires a long-term commitment and does not address the variability in traffic patterns. This option would not optimize costs during low-traffic periods because the instances would still be running regardless of demand.
- E. Correct.
Enabling Spot Instances for non-critical workloads in the Auto Scaling group leverages unused EC2 capacity at a significantly reduced cost, optimizing costs while maintaining flexibility for scaling.