Question #1165
A company stores compliance reports that regulators access once every six months. Which Amazon S3 storage class should the company use to store the data with the LOWEST cost?
Amazon S3 Outposts
Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval
Amazon S3 Standard
Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Explanation
The correct answer is D (Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering). Here's why:
- S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically optimizes costs by moving objects between access tiers (Frequent, Infrequent, Archive Instant, and Deep Archive) based on usage. For data accessed every six months, it transitions to cheaper tiers after 30/90 days of inactivity, resulting in lower storage costs than fixed-tier classes.
- Why other options are incorrect:
- A (S3 Outposts): Designed for on-premises storage with AWS management, which is costlier and unnecessary for compliance reports accessed infrequently.
- B (S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval): While cost-effective for quarterly access, its storage costs are higher than Intelligent-Tiering's Archive Instant tier, which the data would enter after 90 days of inactivity.
- C (S3 Standard): Designed for frequent access, making it unnecessarily expensive for semi-annual retrievals.
Key Points:
- Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering for unpredictable or infrequent access patterns to minimize costs.
- It avoids retrieval fees associated with Glacier classes if data transitions to deeper tiers.
- Ideal for compliance data with semi-annual access, as it leverages lower-cost tiers automatically.
Answer
The correct answer is: D