AWS Certified Data Engineer – AssociateData Governance and SecurityMedium
A data analytics company needs to archive historical log data for compliance purposes. The data is stored in Amazon S3 and must be retained for 15 years, with infrequent access expected (once or twice a year). The primary concern is minimizing storage costs while meeting the long-term retention requirement. Which S3 storage class is the most cost-effective choice for this scenario?
- AS3 Glacier Deep Archive
- BS3 One Zone-IA
- CS3 Intelligent-Tiering
- DS3 Standard
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. S3 Glacier Deep Archive
S3 Glacier Deep Archive is designed for long-term data archiving with retrieval times of hours, offering the lowest storage cost among S3 storage classes. Given the 15-year retention and infrequent access (once or twice a year), it is the most cost-effective solution.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. S3 One Zone-IA is for infrequently accessed data but offers higher durability risks (single AZ) and higher storage costs than Glacier Deep Archive for very long-term archives.
- C. S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves data between access tiers but is not optimized for the absolute lowest cost of very long-term, extremely infrequent archival data compared to Glacier Deep Archive.
- D. S3 Standard is for frequently accessed data and is significantly more expensive for long-term archiving.
S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is Amazon S3's lowest-cost storage class, designed for archiving data that is rarely accessed (e.g., once or twice a year) and can tolerate retrieval times of several hours.
- Lowest cost S3 storage class.
- Designed for long-term archives (7-10+ years).
- Retrieval times range from 12-48 hours.
- Ideal for regulatory compliance data.
Memory trick: Deep Archive for Deep Savings