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Difficulty: EasyManaging Storage and Data Transfer Costs

An organization has a fleet of EC2 instances running in a private subnet in `us-east-1` that downloads 50 TB50\text{ TB} of data monthly from Amazon S3 buckets located in the same Region. Currently, all outbound internet traffic, including the S3 traffic, flows through a NAT Gateway. In addition, the organization stores 100 TB100\text{ TB} of raw application logs in an Amazon S3 Standard bucket. Analysis of log access patterns shows these logs are rarely accessed after 3030 days, but they must be retained for 11 year for compliance audits.

Which combination of actions should the Solutions Architect take to reduce both storage and data transfer costs in the most cost-effective manner? (Select TWO.)

  1. Create an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition the application logs to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 3030 days.Answer
  2. Provision a Gateway VPC Endpoint for Amazon S3 and update the private subnet's route table to direct S3 traffic through the endpoint.Answer
  3. C
    Provision an Interface VPC Endpoint for Amazon S3 and configure the private subnet's route table to direct S3 traffic through the endpoint.
  4. D
    Order an AWS Snowcone device monthly to archive the logs, and transfer them physically to an offsite location.
  5. E
    Purchase an EC2 Instance Savings Plan to offset the NAT Gateway data processing charges.

Answer

The correct actions are to create an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition the application logs to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 30 days, and to provision a Gateway VPC Endpoint for Amazon S3 and update the private subnet's route table.
Transitioning logs to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 3030 days is the most cost-effective storage strategy for compliance data that is rarely accessed. Provisioning a Gateway VPC Endpoint for Amazon S3 is the optimal way to bypass NAT Gateway data processing fees for same-Region S3 traffic without incurring new costs.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the storage cost optimization requirement.
The application logs are 100 TB100\text{ TB} in size, stored in S3 Standard, and rarely accessed after 3030 days but must be kept for 11 year. Transitioning them to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 3030 days dramatically reduces the storage price per GB.
S3 Standard is expensive for long-term retention of infrequently accessed log files. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval provides a much cheaper storage tier suitable for compliance logs.
2
Analyze the data transfer cost optimization requirement.
The EC2 instances download 50 TB50\text{ TB} of data monthly from Amazon S3 in the same Region via a NAT Gateway. NAT Gateway charges a data processing fee of 2,2502,250 USD per month (50,000 GB×$0.045/GB50,000\text{ GB} \times \$0.045/\text{GB}).
Using a NAT Gateway for same-Region S3 traffic is an unnecessary expense because S3 traffic can be routed privately within the AWS network.
3
Select the most cost-effective private routing mechanism.
A Gateway VPC Endpoint for S3 is chosen. It is free of charge and does not incur any hourly or data processing fees, unlike an Interface VPC Endpoint.
Gateway VPC Endpoints are the optimal choice for same-region S3 access from a VPC as they eliminate NAT Gateway data processing costs for free.

Key Concept

Optimizing storage costs via S3 Lifecycle policies and eliminating data transfer costs using Gateway VPC Endpoints for S3.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Managing Storage and Data Transfer Costs