SAA-C03 Exam Dumps - AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)

The most cost-effective and low-maintenance solution to aggregate S3 data from multiple accounts within the same AWS Region is to use Amazon S3 Same-Region Replication (SRR).

From AWS S3 Documentation:

"S3 Same-Region Replication (SRR) automatically replicates new objects between buckets in the same AWS Region. SRR is commonly used to aggregate logs into a single bucket, simplify data aggregation, and meet compliance requirements."

(Source: Amazon S3 User Guide – Replication Overview)

Key benefits of using SRR for this use case:

Zero operational overhead – No Lambda, scripts, or custom code

Fully managed – AWS handles all replication automatically

Secure and efficient – No data leaves the us-west-2 Region

Supports cross-account replication – With proper IAM roles and permissions

Low-cost – Compared to custom ETL pipelines or Lambda solutions

In contrast:

Option A (Lifecycle policies) do not support copying, only expiration, transitions, or deletions.

Option C (scripts) requires custom scheduling and maintenance, increasing operational overhead.

Option D (Lambda) adds complexity and cost and is not as scalable or hands-off as SRR.

For predictable workloads requiring a relational database, Amazon RDS for MySQL offers a managed, cost-effective solution. Storing product images in Amazon S3 is highly durable and cost-efficient, especially for static assets like images. This combination leverages managed services to reduce operational overhead and costs.

AWS Budgets allows you to set custom cost and usage budgets. When actual or forecasted usage exceeds the threshold, AWS Budgets can automatically send alerts to an Amazon SNS topic. You can use AWS Cost Explorer in parallel for visual tracking of spending. This solution requires no code and has minimal operational overhead.

Comprehensive and Detailed Step-by-Step Explanation:

The requirement is toprevent data deletion by any user, including administrators, for 7 years while allowing automatic deletion afterward.

S3 Object Lock in Compliance Mode (Correct Choice - C)

Compliance mode ensures that even the root user cannot delete or modify the objects during the retention period.

After 7 years, the S3 Lifecycle policy automatically deletes the objects.

This meets bothimmutability and automatic deletionrequirements.

Governance Mode (Option B - Incorrect)

Governance mode prevents deletion,but administrators can override it.

The requirement explicitly states thateven administrators must not be able to delete the data.

S3 Bucket Policy (Option A - Incorrect)

An S3 bucket policy candeny deletes, but policies can be modified at any time by administrators.

It does not enforce strict retention like Object Lock.

S3 Batch Operations Job (Option D - Incorrect)

A legal hold does not have an automatic expiration.

Legal holds must be manually removed, which is not efficient.

Why Option C is Correct:

S3 Object Lock in Compliance Mode prevents deletion by all users, including administrators.

The S3 Lifecycle policy deletes the data automatically after 7 years, reducing operational overhead.

The company’s requirements are:

Store gigabytes of rarely accessed files daily.

Files must be available within minutes during the first year.

Retain files for 7 years cost-effectively.

The S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class provides low-cost, long-term storage for data accessed occasionally, with millisecond retrieval time. This fits the requirement for availability within minutes during the first year. After one year, transitioning files to S3 Glacier Deep Archive (the lowest cost S3 storage class) with longer retrieval times is cost-effective for data retention over 7 years.

Option B uses S3 Standard and Glacier Flexible Retrieval, which is higher cost during the first year and slower retrieval times. Option C is less cost-efficient because EBS volumes are expensive for rarely accessed data and snapshots incur additional costs. Option D uses EFS, which is designed for low-latency file storage but is more expensive than S3 Glacier classes for long-term archival.

Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) is a network interface for Amazon EC2 instances that enables high throughput, low-latency networking, and OS-bypass capabilities. EFAs are designed for applications that require fast inter-node communications, such as HPC, ML, and real-time analytics. EFA provides significantly lower latency than traditional networking, which is ideal for real-time streaming and processing workloads.

Reference Extract from AWS Documentation / Study Guide:

"Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) provides low-latency, high-throughput network communications required by high-performance computing applications, enabling fast, scalable, and tightly-coupled workloads on AWS."

Source: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Official Study Guide, EC2 Networking section.

An S3 Bucket Key reduces the cost of using AWS KMS for server-side encryption by decreasing the number of requests made to KMS. By enabling S3 Bucket Key, the company can meet its encryption requirements with KMS keys while optimizing costs by reducing the number of KMS API requests.

Key AWS features:

Cost Optimization: S3 Bucket Keys reduce the frequency of KMS calls, optimizing the cost associated with encryption while still using AWS KMS for key management.

Compliance with KMS Encryption: This solution continues to meet the strict encryption requirements of the company by using KMS managed keys.

AWS Documentation: Using an S3 Bucket Key is recommended for organizations looking to optimize encryption costs without compromising security​​.

Dead-letter queues (DLQs) with Amazon SQS allow Lambda functions to offload failed events for later inspection or retry. Using retry logic with exponential backoff ensures resilience and compliance with best practices for fault-tolerant serverless architectures. This guarantees no data is lost due to transient errors.