You have developed a new web application on AWS for a real estate firm. It has a web interface where real estate employees upload photos of newly constructed houses in S3 buckets. Prospective buyers log in to the website and access photos. The marketing team has initiated an intensive marketing event to promote new housing schemes which will lead to customers who frequently access these images. As this is a new application, you have no projection of traffic on the S3 bucket. You need an S3 storage class that can automatically optimize the storage costs with changing access patterns. Which of the following is a recommended storage solution to meet this requirement?

Answer options:

A.Use One Zone-IA storage class to store all images.
B.Use Standard-IA to store all images.
C.Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class.
D.Use Standard storage class and use Storage class analytics to identify & move objects using lifecycle policies.

Correct Answer – C
When the access pattern to web applications using S3 storage buckets is unpredictable, you can use S3 intelligent-Tiering storage class. S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class includes two access tiers: frequent access and infrequent access. Based upon access patterns, it moves data between these tiers, which helps in cost saving. S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class has the same performance as that of Standard storage class.
Option A is incorrect. Although it will save costs, it will not provide any protection in case of AZ failure. Also, this class is suitable for infrequently accessed data & not for frequently access data.
Option B is incorrect as Standard-IA storage class is for infrequently accessed data & there are retrieval charges associated. In the above requirement, you do not know the data access pattern, which may result in a higher cost.
Option D is incorrect. It has operational overhead to set up Storage class analytics & moves objects between various classes. Also, since the access pattern is undetermined, this will run into a costlier option.
For more information on S3 Intelligent-Tiering, refer to the following URLs:
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-automatic-cost-optimization-for-amazon-s3-via-intelligent-tiering/