CompTIA Cloud+ (CV0-004)OperationsMedium
A cloud operations team is reviewing their monthly cloud bill and notices a significant increase in data transfer costs. Upon investigation, they discover that a batch processing job frequently downloads large datasets from an object storage bucket in one region, processes them on virtual machines in a different region, and then uploads the results back to the original object storage bucket. Which optimization strategy should be prioritized to reduce these data transfer costs?
- AImplement data compression before transfers.
- BRelocate the virtual machines to the same region as the object storage bucket.
- CSwitch to a cheaper object storage tier.
- DIncrease the virtual machine instance size for faster processing.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Relocate the virtual machines to the same region as the object storage bucket.
Data transfer costs are often incurred when moving data between different cloud regions (egress costs). Relocating the virtual machines to the same region as the object storage bucket eliminates inter-region data transfer, significantly reducing these specific costs.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Data compression reduces the volume of data transferred, which helps, but relocating compute to the same region is a more fundamental and often more impactful solution for inter-region transfer costs.
- C. Switching storage tiers reduces storage cost, not data transfer costs between regions.
- D. Increasing VM size might speed up processing but won't reduce data transfer costs between regions.
Cloud Egress Costs
Charges incurred for data transferred out of a cloud provider's network or between different regions/zones.
- Often a significant hidden cost in cloud computing.
- Data transfer within the same region/availability zone is typically free or very cheap.
- Optimizing data locality is key to reducing egress costs.
Memory trick: Keep data and compute 'Close' to keep costs 'Low'.