AWS Certified Database – Specialty — Question 334

An IT company wants to reduce its database operation costs in its development environment. The company's workflow creates an Amazon Aurora MySQL DB cluster for each development group. The DB clusters are used for only 8 hours a day. The DB clusters can be deleted at the end of a development cycle, which lasts 2 weeks.
Which solution will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

Answer options

• A. Use AWS CloudFormation templates. Deploy a stack with a DB cluster for each development group. Delete the stack at the end of each development cycle.
• B. Use the Aurora cloning feature. Deploy a single development and test Aurora DB instance. Create clone instances for the development groups. Delete the clones at the end of each development cycle.
• C. Use Aurora Replicas. From the primary writer instance, create read replicas for each development group. Promote each read replica to a standalone DB cluster Delete the standalone DB cluster at the end of each development cycle.
• D. Use Aurora Serverless. Restore a current Aurora snapshot to an Aurora Serverless cluster for each development group. Select the option to pause the compute capacity on the cluster after a specified amount of time with no activity. Delete the Aurora Serverless cluster at the end of each development cycle.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

Option D is the most cost-effective choice because Aurora Serverless automatically scales compute capacity and can be configured to pause entirely during periods of inactivity, meaning the company will not pay for compute costs during the 16 hours a day the databases are idle. Other solutions utilizing provisioned instances (Options A, B, and C) would continue to incur compute charges 24 hours a day unless manually stopped and started daily. Deleting the Serverless clusters at the end of each 2-week development cycle ensures no ongoing storage or compute costs persist between cycles.