AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) — Question 448

A company has an application that analyzes and stores image data on premises. The application receives millions of new image files every day. Files are an average of 1 MB in size. The files are analyzed in batches of 1 GB. When the application analyzes a batch, the application zips the images together. The application then archives the images as a single file in an on-premises NFS server for long-term storage.

The company has a Microsoft Hyper-V environment on premises and has compute capacity available. The company does not have storage capacity and wants to archive the images on AWS. The company needs the ability to retrieve archived data within 1 week of a request.

The company has a 10 Gbps AWS Direct Connect connection between its on-premises data center and AWS. The company needs to set bandwidth limits and schedule archived images to be copied to AWS during non-business hours.

Which solution will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

Answer options

• A. Deploy an AWS DataSync agent on a new GPU-based Amazon EC2 instance. Configure the DataSync agent to copy the batch of files from the NFS on-premises server to Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval. After the successful copy, delete the data from the on-premises storage.
• B. Deploy an AWS DataSync agent as a Hyper-V VM on premises. Configure the DataSync agent to copy the batch of files from the NFS on-premises server to Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive. After the successful copy, delete the data from the on-premises storage.
• C. Deploy an AWS DataSync agent on a new general purpose Amazon EC2 instance. Configure the DataSync agent to copy the batch of files from the NFS on-premises server to Amazon S3 Standard. After the successful copy, delete the data from the on-premises storage. Create an S3 Lifecycle rule to transition objects from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 day.
• D. Deploy an AWS Storage Gateway Tape Gateway on premises in the Hyper-V environment. Connect the Tape Gateway to AWS. Use automatic tape creation. Specify an Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive pool. Eject the tape after the batch of images is copied.

Correct answer: B

Explanation

Option B is the most cost-effective solution as it utilizes AWS DataSync with S3 Glacier Deep Archive, which is the most economical option for long-term storage. Options A and C involve more expensive storage solutions, like S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval and S3 Standard, which do not align with the company's need for low-cost archival. Option D, while feasible, adds unnecessary complexity and isn't as cost-efficient as using DataSync directly to Glacier Deep Archive.