AWS Certified Database – Specialty — Question 104

A company uses Amazon DynamoDB as the data store for its ecommerce website. The website receives little to no traffic at night, and the majority of the traffic occurs during the day. The traffic growth during peak hours is gradual and predictable on a daily basis, but it can be orders of magnitude higher than during off- peak hours.
The company initially provisioned capacity based on its average volume during the day without accounting for the variability in traffic patterns. However, the website is experiencing a significant amount of throttling during peak hours. The company wants to reduce the amount of throttling while minimizing costs.
What should a database specialist do to meet these requirements?

Answer options

• A. Use reserved capacity. Set it to the capacity levels required for peak daytime throughput.
• B. Use provisioned capacity. Set it to the capacity levels required for peak daytime throughput.
• C. Use provisioned capacity. Create an AWS Application Auto Scaling policy to update capacity based on consumption.
• D. Use on-demand capacity.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

The correct answer is C because implementing an AWS Application Auto Scaling policy allows the database to automatically adjust its provisioned capacity in response to changing traffic patterns, thus reducing throttling during peak hours while minimizing costs. Options A and B do not address the dynamic nature of traffic, as they would lock in high capacity levels at all times. Option D could be an alternative but may not be cost-effective in scenarios with predictable traffic patterns.