SAP-C02 Question 325
Select 3A company is running a web application in AWS, leveraging an Auto Scaling group of Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application stores user-uploaded images in Amazon S3 and uses Amazon RDS for its database. The company has observed increasing costs as the application’s usage grows. As a Solutions Architect, what combination of strategies should you recommend to optimize costs while maintaining performance and scalability?
- A
Enable instance rightsizing recommendations in AWS Compute Optimizer to analyze and downsize EC2 instance types if applicable.
- B
Implement S3 Intelligent-Tiering for storing user-uploaded images to automatically move objects to the most cost-effective storage tier.
- C
Move the database from Amazon RDS to Amazon DynamoDB to reduce costs.
- D
Configure Auto Scaling group policies to use Spot Instances for non-critical workloads where applicable.
- E
Enable Multi-AZ deployments for Amazon RDS to reduce costs by distributing traffic across regions.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: A, B, D
Explanation
To optimize costs without sacrificing performance and scalability, leveraging AWS tools like Compute Optimizer for instance rightsizing, S3 Intelligent-Tiering for storage cost reduction, and Spot Instances for cost-efficient compute are effective strategies. These approaches target specific cost drivers within the architecture while maintaining the application's ability to scale and perform as required. Moving the database to DynamoDB or enabling Multi-AZ RDS configurations would not necessarily align with the cost optimization objective in this scenario.
- A. Correct.
Enabling instance rightsizing recommendations in AWS Compute Optimizer helps identify over-provisioned EC2 instances and suggests downsizing to reduce costs without compromising performance. This is a cost-optimization best practice.
- B. Correct.
S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between storage tiers based on access patterns, which can reduce storage costs for infrequently accessed data while maintaining performance.
- C. Incorrect.
Moving the database from Amazon RDS to Amazon DynamoDB may not be suitable for all use cases, especially if the application requires relational database capabilities. This could lead to significant re-architecture and may not optimize costs effectively.
- D. Correct.
Using Spot Instances for non-critical workloads can significantly reduce costs compared to On-Demand Instances, while still maintaining the Auto Scaling group’s ability to scale based on demand.
- E. Incorrect.
Enabling Multi-AZ deployments for Amazon RDS increases availability but does not directly reduce costs. In fact, it typically increases costs due to provisioning standby resources in another Availability Zone.