AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – AssociateCost and Performance OptimizationMedium
A media company is using Amazon S3 to store a vast archive of video and image assets. These assets are frequently accessed for the first 30 days after upload, then accessed infrequently for the next 90 days, and finally, rarely accessed but must be retained indefinitely for compliance reasons. The company wants to optimize storage costs while ensuring data availability and durability. Which S3 storage class strategy would best meet these requirements?
- AStore all assets directly in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and use S3 Select for retrieval of frequently accessed items.
- BKeep all assets in S3 One Zone-IA for cost savings and manually move older assets to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval as needed.
- CUse S3 Standard for the first 30 days, then transition to S3 Standard-IA for 90 days, and finally to S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
- DUtilize S3 Intelligent-Tiering with a configuration to move objects to infrequent access tiers after 30 days and to archive access tiers after 120 days.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Utilize S3 Intelligent-Tiering with a configuration to move objects to infrequent access tiers after 30 days and to archive access tiers after 120 days.
S3 Intelligent-Tiering is designed to automate cost savings by moving objects between frequent, infrequent, and archive access tiers based on changing access patterns. This eliminates the need for manual lifecycle policies and aligns perfectly with the described access patterns.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is typically for archival data with longer retrieval times and is not suitable for frequently accessed data due to retrieval costs and latency.
- B. S3 One Zone-IA is not recommended for frequently accessed data and lacks the multi-AZ durability of other classes. Manual management is inefficient for a vast archive with changing access patterns.
- C. While using multiple storage classes with lifecycle policies is an option, Intelligent-Tiering automates this process, making it more efficient and less prone to configuration errors for fluctuating access patterns.
S3 Intelligent-Tiering
An Amazon S3 storage class that automatically moves objects between four access tiers (Frequent, Infrequent, Archive Instant, Archive Deep) when access patterns change, optimizing storage costs without performance impact.
- Automates cost savings based on access patterns.
- No retrieval fees when moving between tiers.
- Suitable for data with unknown or changing access patterns.
Memory trick: Smart S3 tiers, saving fees, for changing data needs.