Question #1602
A company has 8 PB of archived data on physical tapes. The company must retain the data for 15 years for regulatory compliance and plans to migrate to AWS within 8 months. The data center hosting the tapes has a 1 Gbps internet connection. Which solution MOST cost-effectively meets these requirements?
Extract data from the tapes on premises, store it temporarily in a local SMB file share, and use AWS DataSync to transfer the data to Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
Use an on-premises backup application to read the tapes and write the data directly to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval.
Order several AWS Snowball Edge devices with Tape Gateway. Copy the physical tapes to virtual tapes on Snowball, ship the devices to AWS, and apply a lifecycle policy to transition the data to Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
Set up an on-premises Tape Gateway and create virtual tapes in AWS. Use backup software to migrate the physical tapes to the virtual tapes.
Explanation
The key points are:
1. Data Volume & Timeline: 8 PB over a 1 Gbps connection would take ~2+ years (exceeding the 8-month deadline). Network-based solutions (A, B, D) are infeasible.
2. Physical Transfer: AWS Snowball Edge devices bypass network limitations by shipping data physically, ensuring timely migration.
3. Tape Gateway Integration: Snowball Edge with Tape Gateway converts physical tapes to virtual tapes, maintaining compatibility with tape-based workflows.
4. Cost-Effective Storage: Lifecycle policies transition virtual tapes to S3 Glacier Deep Archive, the cheapest AWS storage for 15-year retention.
Why Other Options Fail:
- A/B/D: Rely on slow network transfers (1 Gbps), making 8 PB migration impossible within 8 months.
- B/D: Lack physical transfer capability and may not optimize storage costs for long-term retention.
Answer
The correct answer is: C