AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 400

A company has a web application with sporadic usage patterns. There is heavy usage at the beginning of each month, moderate usage at the start of each week, and unpredictable usage during the week. The application consists of a web server and a MySQL database server running inside the data center. The company would like to move the application to the AWS Cloud, and needs to select a cost-effective database platform that will not require database modifications.

Which solution will meet these requirements?

Answer options

• A. Amazon DynamoDB
• B. Amazon RDS for MySQL
• C. MySQL-compatible Amazon Aurora Serverless
• D. MySQL deployed on Amazon EC2 in an Auto Scaling group

Correct answer: C

Explanation

Amazon Aurora Serverless is the ideal solution because it automatically scales database capacity up or down based on actual demand and can scale down to zero during periods of inactivity, making it highly cost-effective for sporadic workloads. Since it is fully MySQL-compatible, it allows a seamless migration with zero database or application modifications. In contrast, Amazon DynamoDB is a NoSQL database that would require extensive application rewrites, while Amazon RDS for MySQL and EC2-hosted options do not scale down to zero automatically to optimize costs during idle periods.