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Explanation:

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

The requirements are clear:

Minimize storage costs for objects that become mostly infrequently accessed after ~30 days.
Keep millisecond retrieval latency for every object (the few that remain frequently accessed and the majority that become cold).
Continue using the existing S3 + CloudFront architecture.

S3 Intelligent-Tiering (Option A) is purpose-built for exactly this scenario.

It automatically places new objects in the Frequent Access tier (same performance and price as S3 Standard).
After 30 consecutive days of no access, it moves the object to the Infrequent Access tier (lower storage price, still millisecond latency, no retrieval fees).
If an object suddenly becomes popular again, Intelligent-Tiering immediately moves it back to the Frequent Access tier.
No lifecycle rules, no retrieval delays, no manual intervention.
CloudFront continues to serve the objects with zero changes.

This is the lowest-cost solution that satisfies the millisecond-retrieval SLA for all photos and videos.

Why the other options are incorrect:

B (S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days)
Glacier Deep Archive is the cheapest storage class, but it has 12-hour standard retrieval (or 48-hour bulk). This violates the “millisecond retrieval availability” requirement. It is unsuitable for any objects that might still be accessed after 30 days.
C (Replace S3 with Amazon EFS mounted on EC2)
EFS is a file-system service, not an object store. It is significantly more expensive than S3 Intelligent-Tiering or even S3 Standard-IA for this workload. It cannot be used as a CloudFront origin as easily as S3, requires EC2 instances to mount it, and adds unnecessary complexity and cost. It does not optimize storage cost.
D (Cache-Control: max-age=30 days)
This header only controls how long CloudFront (or browsers) may cache the object. It has no effect on S3 storage pricing or storage class. All objects would remain in the more expensive S3 Standard storage class indefinitely, so storage cost is not optimized. It also does not move cold objects to cheaper tiers.

Summary of storage-class behavior (for quick exam recall):

Storage Class	Retrieval Latency	Storage Cost	Retrieval Fee	Best for this use case?
S3 Standard	Millisecond	Highest	None	No
S3 Intelligent-Tiering	Millisecond	Auto-optimized	None	Yes
S3 Standard-IA	Millisecond	Lower	Yes	Possible, but manual
S3 Glacier Deep Archive	12 h / 48 h	Lowest	Yes	No

Recommended implementation (exam tip):
Enable S3 Intelligent-Tiering on the bucket (or via a Lifecycle rule that moves objects to Intelligent-Tiering). No archive configurations are needed because millisecond access is required. This is the simplest, lowest-cost, and fully automatic solution.

Explanation:

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

The requirements are clear:

Minimize storage costs for objects that become mostly infrequently accessed after ~30 days.
Keep millisecond retrieval latency for every object (the few that remain frequently accessed and the majority that become cold).
Continue using the existing S3 + CloudFront architecture.

S3 Intelligent-Tiering (Option A) is purpose-built for exactly this scenario.

It automatically places new objects in the Frequent Access tier (same performance and price as S3 Standard).
After 30 consecutive days of no access, it moves the object to the Infrequent Access tier (lower storage price, still millisecond latency, no retrieval fees).
If an object suddenly becomes popular again, Intelligent-Tiering immediately moves it back to the Frequent Access tier.
No lifecycle rules, no retrieval delays, no manual intervention.
CloudFront continues to serve the objects with zero changes.

This is the lowest-cost solution that satisfies the millisecond-retrieval SLA for all photos and videos.

Why the other options are incorrect:

B (S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days)
Glacier Deep Archive is the cheapest storage class, but it has 12-hour standard retrieval (or 48-hour bulk). This violates the “millisecond retrieval availability” requirement. It is unsuitable for any objects that might still be accessed after 30 days.
C (Replace S3 with Amazon EFS mounted on EC2)
EFS is a file-system service, not an object store. It is significantly more expensive than S3 Intelligent-Tiering or even S3 Standard-IA for this workload. It cannot be used as a CloudFront origin as easily as S3, requires EC2 instances to mount it, and adds unnecessary complexity and cost. It does not optimize storage cost.
D (Cache-Control: max-age=30 days)
This header only controls how long CloudFront (or browsers) may cache the object. It has no effect on S3 storage pricing or storage class. All objects would remain in the more expensive S3 Standard storage class indefinitely, so storage cost is not optimized. It also does not move cold objects to cheaper tiers.

Summary of storage-class behavior (for quick exam recall):

Storage Class	Retrieval Latency	Storage Cost	Retrieval Fee	Best for this use case?
S3 Standard	Millisecond	Highest	None	No
S3 Intelligent-Tiering	Millisecond	Auto-optimized	None	Yes
S3 Standard-IA	Millisecond	Lower	Yes	Possible, but manual
S3 Glacier Deep Archive	12 h / 48 h	Lowest	Yes	No

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An adventure company has launched a new feature on its mobile app. Users can use the feature to upload their hiking and rafting photos and videos anytime. The photos and videos are stored in Amazon S3 Standard storage in an S3 bucket and are served through Amazon CloudFront. The company needs to optimize the cost of the storage.A solutions architect discovers that most of the uploaded photos and videos are accessed infrequently after 30 days. However, some of the uploaded photos and videos are accessed frequently after 30 days. The solutions architect needs to implement a solution that maintains millisecond retrieval availability of the photos and videos at the lowest possible cost. Which solution will meet these requirements?

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Last updated: April 14, 2026 at 13:08

Configure S3 Intelligent-Tiering on the S3 bucket.

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Configure an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition image objects and video objects from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days.

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