AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)Design High-Performing ArchitecturesHard
A financial institution is migrating a critical, high-transactional database from on-premises to AWS. The database experiences unpredictable and spiky workloads, with peak transaction rates reaching hundreds of thousands per second, followed by periods of low activity. Performance and availability are paramount, and the solution must be cost-optimized to avoid over-provisioning during quiet periods. Which AWS database solution is most appropriate?
- AAmazon Redshift with concurrency scaling.
- BAmazon DynamoDB with on-demand capacity mode.
- CAmazon RDS for PostgreSQL with a provisioned IOPS (PIOPS) volume.
- DAmazon Aurora Serverless v2 with auto-scaling.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 with auto-scaling.
Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 is specifically designed for unpredictable, spiky workloads, offering immediate scaling up and down to handle varying transaction rates while only paying for consumed capacity. This makes it ideal for cost optimization and high performance under fluctuating demand.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Amazon Redshift is a data warehousing solution optimized for analytical workloads, not an OLTP database for high-transactional applications.
- B. DynamoDB is a NoSQL database, and while it has on-demand capacity, the question implies a relational database migration ('high-transactional database' typically refers to relational). Re-architecting to NoSQL can be a significant effort.
- C. RDS with PIOPS provides consistent performance but requires manual scaling of IOPS, which is not ideal for unpredictable spikes and can lead to over-provisioning.
Amazon Aurora Serverless v2
Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 is an on-demand, auto-scaling configuration for Amazon Aurora that scales compute and memory capacity instantly and automatically, paying only for the capacity consumed.
- Designed for highly variable, unpredictable workloads.
- Scales compute and memory in fine-grained increments.
- Provides immediate scaling (milliseconds).
- Cost-effective by paying only for capacity used.
- Compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL Aurora engines.
Memory trick: Aurora Serverless v2: like a chameleon, it changes its size to match the workload, saving money.