AWS Certified Solutions Architect – ProfessionalContinuously Improve Existing SolutionsMedium
A global e-commerce company uses Amazon S3 for storing product images, videos, and customer-uploaded content. They have millions of objects, and their data analysts frequently need to understand the total storage size per prefix, object count, and last modified date for auditing and cost optimization. Manually listing objects with the AWS CLI or S3 console is time-consuming and often hits API rate limits. The company requires an automated, daily report that provides a comprehensive, unthrottled view of their S3 object metadata. Which AWS service should the Solutions Architect recommend to achieve this?
- AAmazon S3 Inventory
- BAmazon CloudWatch Metrics for S3
- CAmazon S3 Event Notifications with AWS Lambda
- DAWS Config with S3 rules
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Amazon S3 Inventory
Amazon S3 Inventory provides a flat file list of your objects and their corresponding metadata on a daily or weekly basis. This allows for comprehensive analysis of object count, size, and other metadata without incurring API request costs or hitting rate limits, perfectly suiting the auditing and cost optimization needs.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Amazon CloudWatch Metrics for S3 provides aggregate metrics (e.g., total bucket size, number of objects) but does not provide object-level metadata details needed for granular auditing and cost optimization per prefix.
- C. S3 Event Notifications trigger for specific object-level events (e.g., PUT, DELETE) and are not designed to generate a comprehensive daily report of all objects and their metadata.
- D. AWS Config helps to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. While it can track S3 bucket configurations, it does not provide detailed object-level metadata inventory for millions of objects.
Amazon S3 Inventory
A feature of Amazon S3 that provides a daily or weekly flat-file list of your objects and their corresponding metadata for a bucket or a shared prefix.
- Provides object-level metadata (size, last modified, encryption status, etc.).
- Delivered as a CSV, ORC, or Parquet file to an S3 bucket.
- Useful for auditing, cost analysis, and data management without API calls.
Memory trick: S3 Inventory is like getting a detailed, daily manifest for your entire S3 warehouse.