Professional Data EngineerManaging and securing dataMedium
A media company stores large volumes of video assets in Cloud Storage. These assets are frequently accessed for the first 30 days after upload, then accessed infrequently for the next 90 days, and rarely accessed thereafter, but must be retained for 5 years for archival purposes. They want to minimize storage costs while maintaining accessibility. Which Cloud Storage lifecycle management policy would be most cost-effective?
- ASet objects to Nearline Storage after 30 days, then Coldline Storage after 120 days, then Archive Storage after 1 year.
- BSet objects to Coldline Storage after 30 days, then Deep Archive Storage after 120 days.
- CSet objects to Nearline Storage after 30 days, then Archive Storage after 120 days.
- DSet objects to Coldline Storage after 30 days, then Archive Storage after 120 days.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Set objects to Nearline Storage after 30 days, then Archive Storage after 120 days.
This policy aligns with the access patterns: frequently accessed (Standard), then infrequently (Nearline) for the next 90 days (total 120 days from upload), and finally rarely accessed (Archive) for long-term retention, minimizing costs while meeting accessibility needs.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. This option uses Coldline for too short a period and then moves to Archive Storage too late (1 year is beyond the 120 day infrequent access window).
- B. Deep Archive has very high retrieval costs and is typically for data accessed less than once a year, making it unsuitable for data still accessed infrequently (next 90 days).
- D. Coldline has higher access costs than Nearline for somewhat infrequent access (90 days) and moves to Archive too early for the 5-year retention.
Cloud Storage Lifecycle Management
Cloud Storage Lifecycle Management allows you to automatically transition objects between storage classes or delete them based on defined rules, such as age or versioning, to optimize costs.
- Rules are applied to buckets.
- Transitions between Standard, Nearline, Coldline, Archive.
- Helps optimize storage costs over time.
Memory trick: Storage Classes Save Cash for Cloud Content.