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Getting Started with Storage: Minimize Storage Costs for Unpredictable Data with Amazon S3

By: Author Alex Lim

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Learn how to reduce storage expenses for data with unpredictable access patterns. Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically optimizes costs by moving objects between access tiers based on usage.

Table of Contents

Question

A gaming company has data access patterns that are often unpredictable. Which storage class could they use to help minimize costs?

A. Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
B. Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
C. Amazon S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access
D. Amazon S3 Standard

Answer

A. Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering

Explanation

Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class is designed to optimize storage costs by automatically moving data to the most cost-effective access tier when access patterns change. Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering is a good choice for workloads that are unpredictable.

For data with unpredictable access patterns, Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering is the ideal storage class to help minimize costs. S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between four different access tiers based on changing access patterns.

The four access tiers are:

  1. Frequent Access tier – Default tier for data that is accessed more than once per month. Same performance and low latency as S3 Standard.
  2. Infrequent Access tier – For data accessed less than once per month but more than once per quarter. Slightly lower performance than Frequent Access tier.
  3. Archive Instant Access tier – Long-lived data that is rarely accessed and needs milliseconds retrieval.
  4. Archive Access tier – Rarely accessed data that is stored at the lowest cost and can be restored within 12 hours.

S3 Intelligent-Tiering monitors the access patterns and automatically moves objects to the most cost-effective tier with no performance impact, retrieval fees, or operational overhead. This makes it ideal for data with changing or unknown access patterns, as it ensures the data is always stored at the lowest possible cost for the given access pattern at any point in time.

The other options are not as cost-effective for unpredictable data access:

  • S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is for long-term archival data that is rarely accessed and can tolerate longer retrieval times.
  • S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single AZ at a 20% lower cost than S3 Standard, but has less redundancy. Best for infrequently accessed data.
  • S3 Standard provides high durability, availability, and performance for frequently accessed data, but does not automatically optimize costs based on usage.

Therefore, S3 Intelligent-Tiering is the best choice to minimize storage costs for data with unpredictable access patterns. The automatic tiering ensures costs are always optimized without any action required by the gaming company.

Getting Started with Storage EDSTORv1EN-US assessment question and answer (Q&A) dump with detail explanation and reference available free, helpful to pass the Getting Started with Storage EDSTORv1EN-US assessment and earn Getting Started with Storage EDSTORv1EN-US badge.