Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer — Question 272

Your company would like to store invoices and other financial documents in Google Cloud. You need to identify a Google-managed solution to store this information for your company. You must ensure that the documents are kept for a duration of three years. Your company’s analysts need frequent access to invoices from the past six months. After six months, invoices should be archived for audit purposes only. You want to minimize costs and follow Google-recommended practices. What should you do?

Answer options

• A. Use Cloud Storage with Object Lifecycle Management to change the object storage class to Coldline after six months.
• B. Use Cloud Storage with Object Lifecycle Management to change the object storage class to Standard after six months.
• C. Store your documents on Filestore, and move the documents to Cloud Storage with object storage class set to Coldline after six months.
• D. Store your documents on Filestore, and move the documents to Cloud Storage with object storage class set to Standard after six months.

Correct answer: A

Explanation

The correct option, A, utilizes Cloud Storage's Object Lifecycle Management to transition to Coldline after six months, which is cost-effective for infrequently accessed data while meeting the three-year retention requirement. Option B incorrectly uses the Standard class for older invoices, which is more expensive for archival storage. Options C and D involve Filestore, which is not necessary for this use case and adds unnecessary complexity and cost.