A financial technology startup logs daily micro-transaction API audit payloads. The genera… — AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

A financial technology startup logs daily micro-transaction API audit payloads. The generated files average $50\text{ KB}$ in size and are stored in an Amazon S3 Standard bucket. The files are frequently accessed during the first $15\text{ days}$ for compliance validation. From day $16$ to day $35$ , the access rate drops significantly, but the files must still be accessible within milliseconds if requested. After $35\text{ days}$ , the files are rarely accessed but must be securely archived for $3\text{ years}$ to meet regulatory requirements, with retrieval times of up to $5\text{ hours}$ being acceptable. Which S3 lifecycle and storage tiering strategy is the most cost-effective for this scenario?

Store the audit logs in Amazon S3 Standard, and configure a lifecycle policy to transition the objects directly to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after $35\text{ days}$ .Answer
B
Store the audit logs in Amazon S3 Standard, configure a lifecycle policy to transition the objects to Amazon S3 Standard-IA on day $16$ , and then to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval on day $36$ .
C
Store the audit logs in Amazon S3 Standard, and configure a lifecycle policy to transition the objects to Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval on day $16$ , and then to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval on day $36$ .
D
Store the audit logs in Amazon S3 Standard, and configure an Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering lifecycle policy to automatically transition the objects to the Archive Access tier after $35\text{ days}$ .

Answer

Storing the audit logs in Amazon S3 Standard and transitioning them directly to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after

35\text{ days}

The correct strategy keeps the files in Amazon S3 Standard for the entire

35\text{ days}

and transitions them directly to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval. Since the files average

50\text{ KB}

, they are below the

128\text{ KB}

minimum billable size limit for S3 Standard-IA and S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval. Storing them in Standard-IA or Glacier Instant Retrieval would lead to paying for

128\text{ KB}

per object. Additionally, because the intermediate access period lasts only

20\text{ days}

(day

16

35

), transitioning them to Standard-IA (which has a

30

-day minimum duration) or Glacier Instant Retrieval (which has a

90

-day minimum duration) before archiving them would result in early deletion/transition penalties. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval has a

40\text{ KB}

minimum billable size limit and a

90

-day minimum storage duration, both of which are satisfied by the

50\text{ KB}

files and the

3

-year retention requirement, making the direct transition the most cost-effective choice.

Step-by-Step Solution

Analyze the file size constraint against S3 storage class billing thresholds.

The files average

50\text{ KB}

. S3 Standard-IA and S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval enforce a minimum billable object size of

128\text{ KB}

, which would more than double the billing volume. Keeping files in S3 Standard avoids this penalty, and S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval has a lower minimum limit of

40\text{ KB}

, which accommodates the

50\text{ KB}

files without a size penalty.

Choosing storage tiers that penalize small objects will increase overall costs instead of optimizing them.

Evaluate the transition timelines against minimum storage duration rules.

The files need millisecond access for only

20\text{ days}

(day

16

35

) before archiving. Transitioning them to S3 Standard-IA or S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval for this short window triggers early transition charges due to their respective

30

-day and

90

-day minimum storage duration requirements.

Storage duration penalties must be computed to prevent unexpected charges during short-lived transitions.

Assess the suitability of S3 Intelligent-Tiering for small files.

S3 Intelligent-Tiering does not perform auto-tiering for files under

128\text{ KB}

, meaning these files will never transition to cheaper tiers and will always incur S3 Standard rates.

Ensures automated tiering features are not misapplied to workloads containing small files.

Formulate the optimal storage tiering pathway.

Retain the files in S3 Standard (no size or duration limits) for the entire

35\text{ days}

, then transition directly to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (where the

90

-day minimum duration is easily met by the

3

-year retention requirement).

This direct transition path avoids both the

128\text{ KB}

size penalty and short-term duration transition penalties.

Key Concept

Cost optimization of S3 storage lifecycles requires analyzing both object size thresholds and minimum storage durations to avoid billing penalties.

Question

Answer

Step-by-Step Solution

Key Concept

Common Mistakes

Topics