AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional — Question 726

A company implements a containerized application by using Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) and Amazon API Gateway. The application data is stored in Amazon Aurora databases and Amazon DynamoDB databases. The company automates infrastructure provisioning by using AWS CloudFormation. The company automates application deployment by using AWS CodePipeline.

A solutions architect needs to implement a disaster recovery (DR) strategy that meets an RPO of 2 hours and an RTO of 4 hours.

Which solution will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

Answer options

• A. Set up an Aurora global database and DynamoDB global tables to replicate the databases to a secondary AWS Region. In the primary Region and in the secondary Region, configure an API Gateway API with a Regional endpoint. Implement Amazon CloudFront with origin failover to route traffic to the secondary Region during a DR scenario.
• B. Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS), Amazon EventBridge (Amazon CloudWatch Events), and AWS Lambda to replicate the Aurora databases to a secondary AWS Region. Use DynamoDB Streams, EventBridge (CloudWatch Events), and Lambda to replicate the DynamoDB databases to the secondary Region. In the primary Region and in the secondary Region, configure an API Gateway API with a Regional endpoint. Implement Amazon Route 53 failover routing to switch traffic from the primary Region to the secondary Region.
• C. Use AWS Backup to create backups of the Aurora databases and the DynamoDB databases in a secondary AWS Region. In the primary Region and in the secondary Region, configure an API Gateway API with a Regional endpoint. Implement Amazon Route 53 failover routing to switch traffic from the primary Region to the secondary Region.
• D. Set up an Aurora global database and DynamoDB global tables to replicate the databases to a secondary AWS Region. In the primary Region and in the secondary Region, configure an API Gateway API with a Regional endpoint. Implement Amazon Route 53 failover routing to switch traffic from the primary Region to the secondary Region.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

Using AWS Backup to copy database backups to a secondary AWS Region easily meets the 2-hour RPO and 4-hour RTO requirements while remaining highly cost-effective, as it avoids the continuous run-time costs of active cross-region replication. Setting up Aurora global databases and DynamoDB global tables (as in Options A and D) or custom AWS DMS replication (as in Option B) would be significantly more expensive and complex than necessary for these RPO/RTO targets.