AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 548

A recent analysis of a company's IT expenses highlights the need to reduce backup costs. The company's chief information officer wants to simplify the on-premises backup infrastructure and reduce costs by eliminating the use of physical backup tapes. The company must preserve the existing investment in the on-premises backup applications and workflows.

What should a solutions architect recommend?

Answer options

• A. Set up AWS Storage Gateway to connect with the backup applications using the NFS interface.
• B. Set up an Amazon EFS file system that connects with the backup applications using the NFS interface.
• C. Set up an Amazon EFS file system that connects with the backup applications using the iSCSI interface.
• D. Set up AWS Storage Gateway to connect with the backup applications using the iSCSI-virtual tape library (VTL) interface.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

AWS Storage Gateway with an iSCSI-VTL interface (Tape Gateway) allows the company to seamlessly replace physical tape infrastructure with virtual tapes in AWS while keeping their existing backup software and workflows intact. Amazon EFS (options B and C) is a file storage service that does not natively support tape backup workflows or the iSCSI interface. Using AWS Storage Gateway with an NFS interface (File Gateway) would require modifying the backup applications to use file-based storage instead of tape-based workflows, failing to preserve the existing setup.