CLF-C02 Practice Exam Questions with Answers AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Certification

 AWS Organizations is a service that enables you to consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an organization that you create and centrally manage. With AWS Organizations, you can create a single payment method for all the AWS accounts in your organization through consolidated billing. Consolidated billing enables you to see a combined view of AWS charges incurred by all accounts in your organization, as well as get a detailed cost report for each individual AWS account associated with your organization. AWS Artifact is a service that provides on-demand access to AWS’ security and compliance reports and select online agreements. AWS Budgets is a service that enables you to plan your service usage, service costs, and instance reservations. AWS Trusted Advisor is a service that provides real-time guidance to help you provision your resources following AWS best practices. None of these services or tools offer consolidated billing.

B and D are correct because AWS availability and security enable customers to improve their SLAs while reducing risk and unplanned downtime1, and AWS reduces IT costs related to infrastructure, allowing customers to reinvest in other areas2. A is incorrect because migrating to the AWS Cloud does not automatically make applications available on mobile devices, as it depends on the application design and compatibility. C is incorrect because companies that migrate to the AWS Cloud still need to plan for high availability and disaster recovery, as AWS is a shared responsibility model3. E is incorrect because migrating to the AWS Cloud does not require companies to rearchitect and rewrite all enterprise applications, as AWS offers different migration strategies depending on the application complexity and business objectives4.

The AWS service that will meet the requirements of the company that is hosting a web application on Amazon EC2 instances and wants to implement custom conditions to filter and control inbound web traffic is AWS WAF. AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from common web exploits that could affect availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. The company can use AWS WAF to create custom rules that block malicious requests that match certain patterns, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting. AWS WAF can be applied to web applications that are behind an Application Load Balancer, Amazon CloudFront, or Amazon API Gateway. Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Macie, and AWS Shield are not the best services to use for this purpose. Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior across the AWS accounts and resources. Amazon Macie is a data security and data privacy service that uses machine learning and pattern matching to discover, classify, and protect sensitive data stored in Amazon S3. AWS Shield is a managed distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection service that safeguards web applications running on AWS. These services are more useful for detecting and preventing different types of threats and attacks, rather than filtering and controlling inbound web traffic based on custom conditions.

Decoupling the components of an application means reducing the dependencies and interactions between them, which can improve the application’s reliability, scalability, and performance. Decoupling can be achieved by using services such as Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), and AWS Lambda1

Amazon S3 is a service that provides highly durable and cost-effective object storage for a variety of use cases, including backup and archive, big data analytics, disaster recovery, and cloud applications. Amazon S3 offers 99.999999999% (11 9’s) of durability, meaning that data is designed to withstand the loss of two facilities concurrently. Amazon S3 also offers several storage classes with different price and performance characteristics, such as S3 Glacier and S3 Glacier Deep Archive, which are ideal for long-term archival of data that is rarely accessed. AWS Snowball, AWS Storage Gateway, and Amazon Kinesis are not designed to provide the same level of durability and cost-effectiveness as Amazon S3 for storing call recordings for 6 years. Source: Amazon S3

Amazon EC2 M1 Mac instances are the AWS service or resource that the company should use for its iOS application development and build activities, as they enable users to run macOS on AWS and access a broad and growing set of AWS services. AWS CodeCommit is a service that provides a fully managed source control service that hosts secure Git-based repositories. AWS Amplify is a set of tools and services that enable developers to build full-stack web and mobile applications using AWS. AWS App Runner is a service that makes it easy for developers to quickly deploy containerized web applications and APIs. These concepts are explained in the AWS Developer Tools page4.

 Physical and environmental controls are entirely the responsibility of AWS, according to the AWS shared responsibility model. The AWS shared responsibility model defines the division of responsibilities between AWS and the customer for security and compliance. AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, which includes the physical and environmental controls of the AWS global infrastructure, such as power, cooling, fire suppression, and physical access. The customer is responsible for the security in the cloud, which includes the configuration and management of the AWS resources and applications. For more information, see [AWS Shared Responsibility Model] and [AWS Cloud Security].

Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is the option that the company can use during the launch process to configure the root volume of the EC2 instance. An AMI is a template that contains the software configuration, such as the operating system, applications, and settings, required to launch an EC2 instance. An AMI also specifies the volume size and type of the root device for the instance. The company can choose an AMI provided by AWS, the AWS Marketplace, or the AWS community, or create a custom AMI. For more information, see [Amazon Machine Images (AMI)] and [Launching an Instance Using the Launch Instance Wizard].

 Operations is an option that is a perspective that includes foundational capabilities of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF). Operations is one of the six perspectives of the AWS CAF, along with business, people, governance, platform, and security. Operations focuses on the processes and procedures to support the ongoing management and maintenance of the cloud-based IT assets. It covers topics such as monitoring, backup and recovery, change management, incident management, and automation5. Sustainability is not a perspective of the AWS CAF, but a concept that refers to the ability of a system to operate in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner. Performance efficiency is not a perspective of the AWS CAF, but a pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. It focuses on using the right resources and services for the workload, monitoring performance, and continuously improving the efficiency of the solution. Reliability is not a perspective of the AWS CAF, but a pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. It focuses on the ability of a system to recover from infrastructure or service disruptions, dynamically acquire computing resources to meet demand, and mitigate disruptions such as misconfigurations or transient network issues.

The options that are perspectives that include foundational capabilities of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) are operations and performance efficiency. The AWS CAF is a guidance that helps organizations design and travel an accelerated path to successful cloud adoption. The AWS CAF organizes the cloud adoption process into six areas of focus, called perspectives, which are business, people, governance, platform, security, and operations. Each perspective is divided into capabilities, which are further divided into skills and responsibilities. The operations perspective focuses on the management and monitoring of the cloud resources and applications, as well as the automation and optimization of the operational processes. The operations perspective capabilities are operations support, operations integration, and service management. The performance efficiency perspective focuses on the selection and configuration of the right cloud resources and services to meet the performance requirements of the applications, as well as the continuous improvement and innovation of the cloud solutions. The performance efficiency perspective capabilities are selection, review, and monitoring. Sustainability, security, and reliability are not perspectives of the AWS CAF, but they are aspects of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a guidance that helps users build and operate secure, reliable, efficient, and cost-effective systems in the cloud. The AWS Well-Architected Framework consists of five pillars, which are operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Sustainability is a cross-cutting theme that applies to all the pillars, and refers to the environmental and social impact of the cloud solutions.

According to the AWS shared responsibility model, AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, while the customer is responsible for the security in the cloud. This means that AWS provides the physical and environmental controls, the service and communications protection, and the awareness and training for its employees, while the customer provides the patch and configuration management, the identity and access management, the data encryption, and the firewall configuration for its resources3.

 Amazon CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail are the AWS services that allow users to monitor and retain records of account activities that include governance, compliance, and auditing. Amazon CloudWatch is a service that collects and tracks metrics, collects and monitors log files, and sets alarms. AWS CloudTrail is a service that enables governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing of your AWS account. Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Shield, and AWS WAF are AWS services that provide security and protection for AWS resources, but they do not monitor and retain records of account activities. These concepts are explained in the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials course3.

 C is correct because moving a workload from a local data center to an architecture that is distributed between the local data center and the AWS Cloud is an example of an on-premises to hybrid migration. A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment that uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud services with orchestration between the platforms. A is incorrect because on-premises to cloud native migration is the process of moving a workload from a local data center to an architecture that is fully hosted and managed on the AWS Cloud. B is incorrect because hybrid to cloud native migration is the process of moving a workload from an architecture that is distributed between the local data center and the AWS Cloud to an architecture that is fully hosted and managed on the AWS Cloud. D is incorrect because cloud native to hybrid migration is the process of moving a workload from an architecture that is fully hosted and managed on the AWS Cloud to an architecture that is distributed between the local data center and the AWS Cloud.

Amazon RDS and Amazon EC2 are two AWS services that you can use to host and run a MySQL database. Amazon RDS is a service that makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. You can use Amazon RDS to launch a MySQL database instance and let Amazon RDS manage common database tasks such as backups, patching, scaling, and replication6. Amazon EC2 is a service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. You can use Amazon EC2 to launch a virtual server and install MySQL software on it. You have complete control over your database configuration, but you are responsible for managing and maintaining the database software and the underlying infrastructure7. Amazon DynamoDB is a key-value and document database that delivers single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. Amazon S3 is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. Amazon MQ is a managed message broker service for Apache ActiveMQ. None of these services can help you host and run a MySQL database.

 Create annotated documentation is the design principle that is included in the operational excellence pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. According to the AWS Well-Architected Framework whitepaper, creating annotated documentation means "documenting your workload so that the team understands the architecture, how to operate the workload, and how the workload delivers value to customers."3 Anticipate failure, ensure performance efficiency, and optimize costs are design principles that belong to other pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, such as reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization.

Compute Savings Plans are a flexible and cost-effective way to optimize long-term compute costs of AWS Lambda functions and Amazon EC2 instances. With Compute Savings Plans, customers can commit to a consistent amount of compute usage (measured in $/hour) for a 1-year or 3-year term and receive a discount of up to 66% compared to On-Demand prices3. Dedicated Hosts are physical servers with EC2 instance capacity fully dedicated to the customer’s use. They are suitable for customers who have specific server-bound software licenses or compliance requirements4. Reserved Instances are a pricing model that provides a significant discount (up to 75%) compared to On-Demand pricing and a capacity reservation for EC2 instances. They are available in 1-year or 3-year terms and different payment options5. Spot Instances are spare EC2 instances that are available at up to 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices. They are suitable for customers who have flexible start and end times, can withstand interruptions, and can handle excess capacity.

AWS Secrets Manager is a service that helps you protect access to your applications, services, and IT resources. This service enables you to easily rotate, manage, and retrieve database credentials, API keys, and other secrets throughout their lifecycle1. Amazon S3 is a storage service that does not offer automatic rotation of credentials. AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store is a service that provides secure, hierarchical storage for configuration data management and secrets management2, but it does not offer automatic rotation of credentials. AWS CloudTrail is a service that enables governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing of your AWS account3, but it does not store or rotate credentials.

 The most cost-effective EC2 instance purchasing option for the company that needs to host a web server on Amazon EC2 instances for at least 1 year and cannot tolerate interruption is Partial Upfront Reserved Instances. Reserved Instances are a pricing model that offer significant discounts compared to On-Demand Instances in exchange for a commitment to use a specific amount of compute capacity for a fixed period of time (1 or 3 years). Partial Upfront Reserved Instances require customers to pay a portion of the total cost upfront, and the remaining cost in monthly installments over the term. This option offers a lower effective hourly rate than No Upfront Reserved Instances, which require no upfront payment but have higher monthly payments. On-Demand Instances and Spot Instances are not the best options for the company. On-Demand Instances are a pricing model that offer the most flexibility and no long-term commitment, but have the highest hourly rate. Spot Instances are a pricing model that offer the lowest cost, but are subject to interruption based on supply and demand34

Scaling horizontally across multiple Availability Zones is a way to adopt a highly available architecture, as it increases the fault tolerance and resilience of the application. Scaling vertically to a larger EC2 instance size is a way to improve the performance of the application, but it does not improve the availability. Purchasing an EC2 Dedicated Instance is a way to isolate the instance from other AWS customers, but it does not improve the availability. Changing the EC2 instance family to a compute optimized instance is a way to optimize the instance type for the workload, but it does not improve the availability. These concepts are explained in the AWS Well-Architected Framework2.

AWS Service Catalog is a service that allows you to create and manage catalogs of IT services that are approved for use on AWS. You can use AWS Service Catalog to centrally manage commonly deployed IT services and help your organization achieve consistent governance and meet your compliance requirements, while enabling users to quickly deploy only the approved IT services they need1. AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. AWS software development kits (SDKs) are tools that enable you to easily integrate your applications with AWS services using your preferred programming language. AWS AppSync is a service that simplifies application development by letting you create a flexible API to securely access, manipulate, and combine data from one or more data sources. None of these services can help you limit your employees’ AWS access to a portfolio of predefined AWS resources.

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a service that allows users to manage access to AWS resources and services. It enables users to create and manage users, groups, roles, and policies that control who can do what in AWS. IAM is always free of charge for users, as there is no additional cost for using IAM with any AWS service1. Amazon S3 is a storage service that provides scalable, durable, and secure object storage. Amazon S3 has a free tier that offers 5 GB of storage, 20,000 GET requests, and 2,000 PUT requests per month for one year. However, users are charged for any additional usage beyond the free tier limits2. Amazon Aurora is a relational database service that is compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL. Amazon Aurora has a free tier that offers 750 hours of Aurora Single-AZ db.t2.small database usage and 20 GB of storage per month for one year. However, users are charged for any additional usage beyond the free tier limits3. Amazon EC2 is a compute service that provides resizable virtual servers. Amazon EC2 has a free tier that offers 750 hours of Linux and Windows t2.micro instances per month for one year. However, users are charged for any additional usage beyond the free tier limits4.

 AWS Organizations is a service that enables you to consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an organization that you create and centrally manage. With AWS Organizations, you can apply service control policies (SCPs) across multiple AWS accounts to restrict what services and actions users and roles can access. You can also use AWS Organizations to enable features such as consolidated billing, AWS Config rules and conformance packs, and AWS CloudFormation StackSets across multiple accounts3. One of the benefits of using AWS Organizations is that you can share your Reserved Instances (RIs) with all of the accounts in your organization. This enables you to take advantage of the billing benefits of RIs without having to specify which account will use them4. AWS Systems Manager is a service that gives you visibility and control of your infrastructure on AWS. Cost Explorer is a tool that enables you to visualize, understand, and manage your AWS costs and usage over time. AWS Trusted Advisor is a service that provides real-time guidance to help you provision your resources following AWS best practices. None of these services or tools can help you manage the AWS accounts for all the departments so that the departments can share the Reserved Instances.

 The AWS tool that will meet the requirements of the company that is planning a migration to the AWS Cloud and wants to examine the costs that are associated with different workloads is AWS Pricing Calculator. AWS Pricing Calculator is a tool that helps customers estimate the cost of using AWS services based on their requirements and preferences. The company can use AWS Pricing Calculator to compare the costs of different AWS services and configurations, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and more. AWS Pricing Calculator also provides detailed breakdowns of the cost components, such as compute, storage, network, and data transfer. AWS Pricing Calculator helps customers plan and optimize their cloud budget and migration strategy. AWS Budgets, AWS Cost Explorer, and AWS Cost and Usage Report are not the best tools to use for this purpose. AWS Budgets is a tool that helps customers monitor and manage their AWS spending and usage against predefined budget limits and thresholds. AWS Cost Explorer is a tool that helps customers analyze and visualize their AWS spending and usage trends over time. AWS Cost and Usage Report is a tool that helps customers access comprehensive and granular information about their AWS costs and usage in a CSV or Parquet file. These tools are more useful for tracking and optimizing the existing AWS costs and usage, rather than estimating the costs of different workloads34

 Spot Instances are instances that use spare EC2 capacity that is available for up to 90% off the On-Demand price. Because Spot Instances can be interrupted by EC2 with two minutes of notification when EC2 needs the capacity back, you can use them for applications that have flexible start and end times, or that can withstand interruptions5. This option is most cost-effective for the use case described in the question. Reserved Instances are instances that you purchase for a one-year or three-year term, and pay a lower hourly rate compared to On-Demand Instances. This option is suitable for applications that have steady state or predictable usage. Dedicated Instances are instances that run on hardware that’s dedicated to a single customer within an Amazon VPC. This option is suitable for applications that have stringent regulatory or compliance requirements. On-Demand Instances are instances that you pay for by the second, with no long-term commitments or upfront payments. This option is suitable for applications that have unpredictable or intermittent workloads.

To maximize sustainability and minimize environmental impact, a company should apply the following design principles to AWS Cloud workloads: maximize utilization of Amazon EC2 instances and reduce the need for users to reinstall applications. Maximizing utilization of Amazon EC2 instances means that the company can optimize the performance and efficiency of their compute resources, and avoid wasting energy and money on idle or underutilized instances. The company can use features such as Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, Amazon EC2 Spot Instances, and AWS Compute Optimizer to automatically adjust the number and type of instances based on demand, cost, and performance. Reducing the need for users to reinstall applications means that the company can minimize the amount of data and bandwidth required to deliver their applications to users, and avoid unnecessary downloads and updates that consume energy and resources. The company can use services such as Amazon CloudFront, AWS AppStream 2.0, and AWS Amplify to deliver their applications faster, more securely, and more efficiently to users across the globe. Minimizing utilization of Amazon EC2 instances, minimizing usage of managed services, and forcing frequent application reinstallations by users are not design principles that would maximize sustainability and minimize environmental impact. Minimizing utilization of Amazon EC2 instances would reduce the performance and efficiency of the compute resources, and potentially increase the costs and complexity of the cloud workloads. Minimizing usage of managed services would increase the operational overhead and responsibility of the company, and potentially expose them to more security and reliability risks. Forcing frequent application reinstallations by users would increase the amount of data and bandwidth required to deliver the applications to users, and potentially degrade the user experience and satisfaction.

 Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is the AWS service that the company should use to migrate its Microsoft SQL Server database management system from on premises to the AWS Cloud. Amazon RDS is a fully managed service that provides a scalable, secure, and high-performance relational database platform. Amazon RDS supports several database engines, including Microsoft SQL Server. Amazon RDS reduces the management overhead for the database environment by taking care of tasks such as provisioning, patching, backup, recovery, and monitoring. For more information, see What is Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)? and Amazon RDS for SQL Server.

 The AWS service or tool that provides recommendations to help users get rightsized Amazon EC2 instances based on historical workload usage data is AWS Compute Optimizer. AWS Compute Optimizer is a service that analyzes the configuration and performance of the AWS resources, such as Amazon EC2 instances, and provides recommendations for optimal resource types and sizes based on the workload patterns and metrics. AWS Compute Optimizer helps users improve the performance, availability, and cost efficiency of their AWS resources. AWS Pricing Calculator, AWS App Runner, and AWS Systems Manager are not the best services or tools to use for this purpose. AWS Pricing Calculator is a tool that helps users estimate the cost of using AWS services based on their requirements and preferences. AWS App Runner is a service that helps users easily and quickly deploy web applications and APIs without managing any infrastructure. AWS Systems Manager is a service that helps users automate and manage the configuration and operation of their AWS resources and applications34

Amazon EC2 Spot Instances let you take advantage of unused EC2 capacity in the AWS cloud. Spot Instances are available at up to a 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices. You can use Spot Instances for various stateless, fault-tolerant, or flexible applications such as big data, containerized workloads, CI/CD, web servers, high-performance computing (HPC), and other test & development workloads. Spot Instances are well-suited for massively parallel computations, as they can provide large amounts of compute capacity at a low cost, and can be interrupted with a two-minute notice3

Amazon Route 53 is the AWS service that provides DNS resolution. DNS (Domain Name System) is a service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Amazon Route 53 is a highly available and scalable cloud DNS service that offers domain name registration, DNS routing, and health checking. Amazon Route 53 can route the traffic to various AWS services, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and Amazon CloudFront. Amazon Route 53 can also integrate with other AWS services, such as AWS Certificate Manager, AWS Shield, and AWS WAF. For more information, see [What is Amazon Route 53?] and [Amazon Route 53 Features].

AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to virtually any datacenter, co-location space, or on-premises facility for a truly consistent hybrid experience. AWS Outposts enables you to run AWS services in your on-premises data center, which can support the requirement of retaining certain data on-premises due to legal obligations5.

 Spot Instances are spare Amazon EC2 instances that are available at up to 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices. They are suitable for workloads that can tolerate interruptions, such as batch processing, data analysis, and testing. Spot Instances are allocated based on the current supply and demand, and can be reclaimed by AWS with a two-minute notice when the demand exceeds the supply5. Convertible Reserved Instances are a type of Reserved Instances that provide a significant discount (up to 54%) compared to On-Demand prices and a capacity reservation for Amazon EC2 instances. They are available in 1-year or 3-year terms and allow users to change the instance family, size, operating system, or tenancy during the term. Standard Reserved Instances are another type of Reserved Instances that provide a larger discount (up to 75%) compared to On-Demand prices and a capacity reservation for Amazon EC2 instances. They are available in 1-year or 3-year terms and do not allow users to change the instance attributes during the term. Dedicated Hosts are physical servers with Amazon EC2 instance capacity fully dedicated to the user’s use. They are suitable for users who have specific server-bound software licenses or compliance requirements.

 The AWS service that will meet the requirements of the company that needs to host a highly available application in the AWS Cloud that runs infrequently for short periods of time with the least amount of operational overhead is AWS Lambda. AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that allows customers to run code without provisioning or managing servers. The company can use AWS Lambda to create and deploy their application as functions that are triggered by events, such as API calls, messages, or schedules. AWS Lambda automatically scales the compute resources based on the demand, and customers only pay for the compute time they consume. AWS Lambda also simplifies the management and maintenance of the application, as customers do not need to worry about the underlying infrastructure, security, or availability. Amazon EC2, AWS Fargate, and Amazon Aurora are not the best services to use for this purpose. Amazon EC2 is a service that provides scalable compute capacity in the cloud, and allows customers to launch and run virtual servers, called instances, with a variety of operating systems, configurations, and specifications. Amazon EC2 requires customers to provision and manage the instances, and pay for the instance hours they use, regardless of the application usage. AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers that allows customers to run containerized applications without managing servers or clusters. AWS Fargate requires customers to specify the amount of CPU and memory resources for each container, and pay for the resources they allocate, regardless of the application usage. Amazon Aurora is a fully managed relational database service that provides high performance, availability, and compatibility. Amazon Aurora is not a compute service, and it is not suitable for hosting an application that runs infrequently for short periods of time12

Amazon CloudFront with Amazon S3 is a solution that allows you to provide static files securely to users from around the world. Amazon CloudFront is a fast content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to customers globally with low latency, high transfer speeds, all within a developer-friendly environment. Amazon S3 is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. You can use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere. You can also configure Amazon S3 to work with Amazon CloudFront to distribute your content to edge locations near your users for faster delivery and lower latency. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is a service that enables you to build custom applications that process or analyze streaming data for specialized needs. This option is not relevant for providing static files securely. Amazon EC2 instances with an Application Load Balancer is a solution that allows you to distribute incoming traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, in multiple Availability Zones. This option is suitable for dynamic web applications, but not necessary for static files. Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) is a service that provides a simple, scalable, fully managed elastic NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. This option is not relevant for providing static files securely.

The AWS service that is designed to help users orchestrate a workflow process for a set of AWS Lambda functions is AWS Step Functions. AWS Step Functions is a service that helps users coordinate multiple AWS services into serverless workflows that can be triggered by events, such as messages, API calls, or schedules. AWS Step Functions allows users to create and visualize complex workflows that can include branching, parallel execution, error handling, retries, and timeouts. AWS Step Functions can integrate with AWS Lambda to orchestrate a sequence of Lambda functions that perform different tasks or logic. Amazon DynamoDB, AWS CodePipeline, and AWS Batch are not the best services to use for orchestrating a workflow process for a set of AWS Lambda functions. Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service that provides fast and consistent performance, scalability, and flexibility. AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed continuous delivery service that helps users automate the release process of their applications. AWS Batch is a fully managed service that helps users run batch computing workloads on the AWS Cloud.

 Using EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones in the same AWS Region is a solution that meets the requirements of sharing the same geographic area but using redundant underlying power sources. Availability Zones are isolated locations within an AWS Region that have independent power, cooling, and physical security. They are connected through low-latency, high-throughput, and highly redundant networking. By launching EC2 instances in different Availability Zones, users can increase the fault tolerance and availability of their applications. Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) service that speeds up the delivery of web content and media to end users by caching it at the edge locations closer to them. It is not a database service and cannot be used to store operational data for EC2 instances. Edge locations are sites that are part of the Amazon CloudFront network and are located in many cities around the world. They are not the same as Availability Zones and do not provide redundancy for EC2 instances. AWS OpsWorks is a configuration management service that allows users to automate the deployment and management of applications using Chef or Puppet. It can be used to create stacks that span multiple AWS Regions, but this would not meet the requirement of sharing the same geographic area.

 AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to virtually any datacenter, co-location space, or on-premises facility for a truly consistent hybrid experience. AWS Outposts enables you to run AWS services in your on-premises data center1.

 The common stakeholders for the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) platform perspective are IT architects and engineers. The AWS CAF is a guidance that helps organizations design and travel an accelerated path to successful cloud adoption. The AWS CAF organizes the cloud adoption process into six areas of focus, called perspectives, which are business, people, governance, platform, security, and operations. Each perspective is divided into capabilities, which are further divided into skills and responsibilities. The platform perspective focuses on the provisioning and management of the cloud infrastructure and services that support the business applications. The platform perspective capabilities are design, implementation, and optimization. The stakeholders for the platform perspective are the IT architects and engineers who are responsible for designing, implementing, and optimizing the cloud platform. Chief financial officers (CFOs), chief information officers (CIOs), and chief data officers (CDOs) are not the common stakeholders for the AWS CAF platform perspective. CFOs are the common stakeholders for the AWS CAF business perspective, which focuses on the value realization of the cloud adoption. CIOs are the common stakeholders for the AWS CAF governance perspective, which focuses on the alignment of the IT strategy and processes with the business strategy and goals. CDOs are the common stakeholders for the AWS CAF security perspective, which focuses on the protection of the information assets and systems in the cloud.

The company follows the AWS Cloud design principle of ensuring traceability by using AWS CloudTrail. AWS CloudTrail is a service that records the API calls and events made by or on behalf of the AWS account. The company can use AWS CloudTrail to monitor, audit, and analyze the activity and changes in their AWS resources and applications. AWS CloudTrail helps the company to achieve compliance, security, governance, and operational efficiency. Recovering automatically, performing operations as code, and measuring efficiency are other AWS Cloud design principles, but they are not directly related to using AWS CloudTrail. Recovering automatically means that the company can design their cloud workloads to handle failures gracefully and resume normal operations without manual intervention. Performing operations as code means that the company can automate the creation, configuration, and management of their cloud resources using scripts or templates. Measuring efficiency means that the company can monitor and optimize the performance and utilization of their cloud resources and applications34

Deploying the application by using multiple Availability Zones is the best way to increase resilience for the application. According to the Amazon RDS User Guide, "Amazon RDS provides high availability and failover support for DB instances using Multi-AZ deployments. In a Multi-AZ deployment, Amazon RDS automatically provisions and maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone. The primary DB instance is synchronously replicated across Availability Zones to a standby replica to provide data redundancy, eliminate I/O freezes, and minimize latency spikes during system backups."4 Deploying a copy of the application in another AWS account, using multiple VPCs, or using multiple subnets do not provide the same level of resilience as using multiple Availability Zones.

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that helps you securely control access to AWS resources for your users. You use IAM to control who can use your AWS resources (authentication) and what resources they can use and in what ways (authorization). IAM is always available free of charge to users4.

 Cost Explorer is an AWS service or tool that can be used to forecast AWS spending. It allows users to analyze their AWS costs and usage using interactive graphs and tables. It also provides features such as filtering, grouping, and forecasting to help users plan their future spending. Amazon DevPay is an AWS service that allows developers to sell applications that are built on AWS services. It handles the billing and metering for the customers of the applications and collects payments from them. It is not a tool for forecasting AWS spending. AWS Organizations is an AWS service that allows users to centrally manage and govern their AWS accounts. It provides features such as creating groups of accounts, applying policies, and automating account creation. It is not a tool for forecasting AWS spending. AWS Trusted Advisor is an AWS service that provides best practices and recommendations to optimize the performance, security, and cost of AWS resources. It can help users identify opportunities to reduce their AWS costs, but it is not a tool for forecasting AWS spending

 AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager is a capability that allows users to automate the security updates for their operating systems and applications. It enables users to scan their instances for missing patches, define patch baselines, schedule patching windows, and monitor patch compliance. It supports Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon Lightsail instances, and on-premises servers. AWS Shield is a service that provides protection against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks for AWS resources and services. It does not automate the security updates for operating systems and applications. Connecting to each server by using a remote desktop connection and running an update script is a manual and time-consuming solution that requires a lot of operational effort. It is not a recommended best practice for automating the security updates for operating systems and applications. Amazon GuardDuty is a service that provides intelligent threat detection and continuous monitoring for AWS accounts and resources. It does not automate the security updates for operating systems and applications.

 AWS Enterprise Support is the AWS Support plan that includes an AWS concierge whom the company can ask for assistance. According to the AWS Support Plans page, AWS Enterprise Support provides "a dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM) who provides advocacy and guidance to help plan and build solutions using best practices, coordinate access to subject matter experts, and proactively keep your AWS environment operationally healthy."2 AWS Business Support, AWS Developer Support, and AWS Basic Support do not include a TAM or a concierge service.

AWS Auto Scaling is the AWS service that allows users to optimize the number of EC2 instances based on the usage pattern, as it automatically adjusts the capacity to maintain steady and predictable performance at the lowest possible cost. Spot Instances are a way to reduce the cost of EC2 instances by bidding on unused EC2 capacity, but they are not suitable for applications that require steady and reliable performance. Reserved Instances are a way to reduce the cost of EC2 instances by committing to a certain amount of usage for a period of time, but they are not flexible to adjust to the usage pattern. AWS CloudFormation is a way to automate the creation and management of AWS resources, but it does not optimize the number of EC2 instances based on the usage pattern. These concepts are explained in the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials course3.

 The perspective of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) that connects technology and business is governance. The governance perspective focuses on the alignment of the IT strategy and processes with the business strategy and goals, as well as the management of the IT budget, risk, and compliance. The governance perspective capabilities are portfolio management, business performance management, and IT governance. The governance perspective helps organizations ensure that their cloud adoption delivers the expected business value and outcomes, and that their cloud solutions are secure, reliable, and compliant. Operations, people, and security are other perspectives of the AWS CAF, but they do not directly connect technology and business. The operations perspective focuses on the management and monitoring of the cloud resources and applications, as well as the automation and optimization of the operational processes. The people perspective focuses on the development and empowerment of the human resources, as well as the transformation of the organizational culture and structure. The security perspective focuses on the protection of the information assets and systems in the cloud, as well as the implementation of the security policies and controls.

Amazon Textract is a service that automatically extracts text and data from scanned documents. Amazon Textract goes beyond simple optical character recognition (OCR) to also identify the contents of fields in forms and information stored in tables. Amazon Textract can analyze images of scanned financial invoices and extract the total balance amounts, as well as other relevant information, such as invoice number, date, vendor name, etc5.

A is correct because Amazon Lex is the AWS service that helps users build conversational interfaces into applications using voice and text. B is incorrect because Amazon Transcribe is the AWS service that helps users convert speech to text. C is incorrect because Amazon Comprehend is the AWS service that helps users analyze text using natural language processing. D is incorrect because Amazon Timestream is the AWS service that helps users collect, store, and process time series data.

 D is correct because security groups are the AWS service or feature that can be used to control inbound and outbound traffic on an Amazon EC2 instance. Security groups act as a virtual firewall for the EC2 instance, allowing users to specify which protocols, ports, and source or destination IP addresses are allowed or denied. A is incorrect because internet gateways are the AWS service or feature that enable communication between instances in a VPC and the internet. They do not control the traffic on an EC2 instance. B is incorrect because AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the AWS service or feature that enables users to manage access to AWS services and resources securely. It does not control the traffic on an EC2 instance. C is incorrect because network ACLs are the AWS service or feature that provide an optional layer of security for the VPC that acts as a firewall for controlling traffic in and out of one or more subnets. They do not control the traffic on an EC2 instance.

 Deploying the application in multiple Availability Zones is the best way to ensure high availability for the application. Availability Zones are isolated locations within an AWS Region that are engineered to be fault-tolerant from failures in other Availability Zones. By deploying the application in multiple Availability Zones, the company can reduce the impact of outages and increase the resilience of the application. Deploying the application in a single Availability Zone, on AWS Direct Connect, or on Reserved Instances does not provide the same level of high availability as deploying the application in multiple Availability Zones. Source: Availability Zones

 Identity and access management is the customer’s responsibility, according to the AWS shared responsibility model. This means that the customer is responsible for managing user access to the AWS resources, using tools such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS Single Sign-On (SSO), and AWS Organizations. The customer is also responsible for securing their data in transit and at rest, using encryption, key management, and other methods. Hard drive initialization, protection of data center hardware, and security of Availability Zones are AWS’s responsibility, as they are part of the infrastructure, physical security, and network security that AWS provides to the customer12

C is correct because turning on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for added security during the login process is one of the IAM security best practices recommended by AWS. MFA adds an extra layer of protection on top of the user name and password, making it harder for attackers to access the AWS account. A is incorrect because using the account root user access keys for administrative tasks is not a good practice, as the root user has full access to all the resources in the AWS account and can cause irreparable damage if compromised. AWS recommends creating individual IAM users with the least privilege principle and using roles for applications that run on Amazon EC2 instances. B is incorrect because granting broad permissions so that all company employees can access the resources they need is not a good practice, as it increases the risk of unauthorized or accidental actions on the AWS resources. AWS recommends granting only the permissions that are required to perform a task and using groups to assign permissions to IAM users. D is incorrect because avoiding rotating credentials to prevent issues in production applications is not a good practice, as it increases the risk of credential leakage or compromise. AWS recommends rotating credentials regularly and using temporary security credentials from AWS STS when possible.

 AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to virtually any datacenter, co-location space, or on-premises facility for a truly consistent hybrid experience. AWS Outposts enables you to run AWS services in your on-premises data center1.

The company should deploy the EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones to design a highly available application. Availability Zones are isolated locations within an AWS Region that are engineered to be fault-tolerant and operate independently of each other. By deploying the EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones, the company can ensure that their application can withstand the failure of an entire Availability Zone and continue to operate with minimal disruption. Deploying the EC2 instances across multiple edge locations, VPCs, or AWS accounts will not provide the same level of availability and fault tolerance as Availability Zones. Edge locations are part of the Amazon CloudFront service, which is a content delivery network (CDN) that caches and serves web content to users. VPCs are virtual networks that isolate the AWS resources within an AWS Region. AWS accounts are the primary units of ownership and access control for AWS resources12

Provisioning additional EC2 instances in other Availability Zones is a way to make the application highly available, as it reduces the impact of failures and increases fault tolerance. Configuring an Application Load Balancer and assigning the EC2 instance as the ALB’s target is a way to distribute traffic among multiple instances, but it does not make the application highly available if there is only one instance. Using an Amazon Machine Image to create the EC2 instance is a way to launch a virtual server with a preconfigured operating system and software, but it does not make the application highly available by itself. Provisioning the application by using an EC2 Spot Instance is a way to use spare EC2 capacity at up to 90% off the On-Demand price, but it does not make the application highly available, as Spot Instances can be interrupted by EC2 with a two-minute notification.

AWS Online Tech Talks are online presentations that cover a broad range of topics at varying technical levels and provide a live Q&A session with AWS experts. They are a great resource for new AWS users who want to learn how to implement specific AWS services from other customer examples and ask questions to AWS experts. AWS documentation, AWS Marketplace, and AWS Health Dashboard do not offer the same level of interactivity and guidance as AWS Online Tech Talks. Source: AWS Online Tech Talks

 AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a service that enables you to manage access to AWS services and resources securely. You can use IAM to perform the following actions:

• Control access to AWS service APIs and to other specific resources: You can create users, groups, roles, and policies that define who can access which AWS resources and how. You can also use IAM to grant temporary access to users or applications that need to perform certain tasks on your behalf3
• Protect the AWS environment using multi-factor authentication (MFA): You can enable MFA for your IAM users and root user to add an extra layer of security to your AWS account. MFA requires users to provide a unique authentication code from an approved device or SMS text message, in addition to their user name and password, when they sign in to AWS4

 B is correct because Reserved Instances are the instance purchasing option that offers the most cost-effective way to use Amazon EC2 instances for a stable production workload that will run for 1 year, as they provide significant discounts compared to On-Demand Instances in exchange for a commitment to use a specific amount of computing power for a period of time. A is incorrect because Dedicated Hosts are the instance purchasing option that allows customers to use physical servers that are fully dedicated to their use, which is more expensive and less flexible than Reserved Instances. C is incorrect because On-Demand Instances are the instance purchasing option that allows customers to pay for compute capacity by the hour or second with no long-term commitments, which is more suitable for short-term, variable, and unpredictable workloads. D is incorrect because Spot Instances are the instance purchasing option that allows customers to bid on spare Amazon EC2 computing capacity, which is more suitable for flexible, scalable, and fault-tolerant workloads that can tolerate interruptions.

 Amazon Cognito is a service that provides identity management for mobile and web applications, allowing users to sign up, sign in, and access AWS resources with different identity providers. AWS Security Hub is a service that provides a comprehensive view of the security posture of AWS accounts and resources. AWS Shield is a service that provides protection against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from common web exploits.

 Network ACLs (network access control lists) are an optional layer of security for your VPC that act as a firewall for controlling traffic in and out of one or more subnets. You can use network ACLs to allow or deny traffic based on protocol, port, or source and destination IP address. Network ACLs are stateless, meaning that they do not track the traffic that flows through them. Therefore, you must create rules for both inbound and outbound traffic.

According to the AWS shared responsibility model, the customer is responsible for security in the cloud, which includes the tasks of managing data encryption and granting least privilege access to IAM users. Data encryption is the process of transforming data into an unreadable format that can only be accessed with a key or a password. The customer must decide whether to encrypt their data at rest (when it is stored on AWS) or in transit (when it is moving between AWS and the customer or between AWS services). The customer must also choose the encryption method, algorithm, and key management solution that best suit their needs. AWS provides various services and features that support data encryption, such as AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS), AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), and AWS Encryption SDK5 IAM users are entities that represent the people or applications that interact with AWS resources and services. The customer must grant the IAM users the minimum permissions that they need to perform their tasks, and avoid giving them unnecessary or excessive access. This is known as the principle of least privilege, and it helps reduce the risk of unauthorized or malicious actions. The customer can use IAM policies, roles, groups, and permissions boundaries to manage the access of IAM users.

 AWS Pricing Calculator lets customers explore AWS services, and create an estimate for the cost of their use cases on AWS. AWS Pricing Calculator can also compare the costs of different AWS Regions and configurations. Cost Explorer is a tool that enables customers to visualize, understand, and manage their AWS costs and usage over time. AWS Budgets gives customers the ability to set custom budgets that alert them when their costs or usage exceed (or are forecasted to exceed) their budgeted amount. AWS Purchase Order Management is a feature that allows customers to pay for their AWS invoices using purchase orders.

AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from common web exploits, such as SQL injection attacks. It allows customers to create custom rules that block malicious requests. AWS Shield is a managed service that protects against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, not SQL injection attacks. Network ACLs and security groups are network-level security features that filter traffic based on IP addresses and ports, not web requests or SQL queries. References: [AWS WAF], [AWS Shield], [Network ACLs], [Security groups]

AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid cloud storage service that allows you to extend your on-premises file storage capabilities to the AWS Cloud. AWS Storage Gateway file gateway enables you to store and access your files in Amazon S3 using industry-standard file protocols such as NFS and SMB. File gateway caches frequently accessed files locally, providing low-latency access to your data. File gateway also optimizes the transfer of data between your on-premises environment and AWS, minimizing the amount of bandwidth consumed. By using file gateway, you can retain the performance benefit of sharing content locally while leveraging the scalability, durability, and cost-effectiveness of Amazon S3. References: AWS Storage Gateway, File Gateway

AWS CloudFormation is a service that allows developers to model and provision their AWS infrastructure in a repeatable and declarative way, using code and templates. AWS CloudFormation enables developers to define the resources they need for their development and production environments, such as compute, storage, network, and application services, and automate their creation and configuration. AWS CloudFormation also provides features such as change sets, nested stacks, and rollback triggers to help developers manage and update their infrastructure safely and efficiently12. References:

• AWS CloudFormation
• What is AWS CloudFormation?

AWS Snow Family is a group of devices that transport data in and out of AWS. AWS Snow Family devices are physical devices that can transfer up to exabytes of data. One exabyte is 1 000 000 000 000 megabytes. AWS Snow Family devices are designed for use in remote locations where internet connectivity is limited or unavailable. You can use these devices to collect and process data at the edge, and then ship them back to AWS for data upload. AWS Snow Family consists of three types of devices: AWS Snowcone, AWS Snowball, and AWS Snowmobile1234. References: 1: Edge Computing Devices, Secure Data Transfer - AWS Snow Family - AWS, 2: AWS Snow Family Documentation, 3: AWS Snow Family - W3Schools, 4: AWS Snow Family: Data Storage, Migration, and Computation

Amazon Timestream is a fast, scalable, and serverless time-series database service for IoT and other operational applications that makes it easy to store and analyze trillions of events per day up to 1,000 times faster and at as little as 1/10th the cost of relational databases1. Amazon Timestream saves you time and cost in managing the lifecycle of time series data, and its purpose-built query engine lets you access and analyze recent and historical data together with a single query1. Amazon Timestream has built-in time series analytics functions, helping you identify trends and patterns in near real time1.

The other options are not suitable for storing and analyzing trillions of events per day. Amazon Neptune is a graph database service that supports highly connected data sets. Amazon Forecast is a machine learning service that generates accurate forecasts based on historical data. Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) is a document database service that supports MongoDB workloads.

References:

• 1: Time Series Database – Amazon Timestream – Amazon Web Services

AWS Outposts is a service that provides fully managed AWS infrastructure and services on premises. It allows users to run applications that require low latency and local data processing, while seamlessly connecting to the AWS Cloud for a consistent hybrid experience. AWS IoT Greengrass is a service that provides local compute, messaging, data caching, sync, and ML inference capabilities for connected devices. AWS Lambda is a service that allows users to run code without provisioning or managing servers. AWS Snowball Edge is a device that provides a petabyte-scale data transport and edge computing solution.

Amazon Cognito is a service that provides user authentication and authorization for web and mobile applications. You can use Amazon Cognito to enable users to sign in directly with a user name and password, or through a third-party provider, such as Facebook, Google, or Amazon. You can also use Amazon Cognito to manage user profiles, preferences, and security settings3

When a company hosts its databases on Amazon EC2 instances, AWS and the customer share the responsibility for the security and management of the database environment. According to the AWS shared responsibility model, AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, while the customer is responsible for the security in the cloud. This means that AWS is responsible for protecting the infrastructure that runs the EC2 instances, such as the hardware, software, networking, and facilities. The customer is responsible for properly configuring the security of the provided service, such as the guest operating system, the database software, the data, and the network traffic12.

One of the tasks that belongs to AWS when a company hosts its databases on Amazon EC2 instances is operating system patches. AWS provides regular updates and patches to the operating system of the EC2 instances, which are applied automatically by default. The customer can also choose to manually apply the patches or schedule them for a specific time window3. Operating system patches are important for maintaining the security and performance of the EC2 instances and the databases running on them.

The other tasks that belong to AWS when a company hosts its databases on Amazon EC2 instances are:

• Operating system installations: AWS provides a variety of operating system options for the EC2 instances, such as Linux, Windows, and Amazon Linux. The customer can choose the operating system that best suits their database needs and AWS will install it on the EC2 instances4.
• Server maintenance: AWS performs regular maintenance and repairs on the physical servers that host the EC2 instances, ensuring that they are in optimal condition and have adequate power, cooling, and network connectivity5.
• Hardware lifecycle: AWS manages the lifecycle of the hardware that supports the EC2 instances, such as replacing faulty components, upgrading equipment, and decommissioning old servers.

The tasks that do not belong to AWS when a company hosts its databases on Amazon EC2 instances are:

• Database backups: The customer is responsible for backing up their data and databases on the EC2 instances, using tools such as Amazon S3, Amazon EBS snapshots, or AWS Backup. Database backups are essential for data protection and recovery in case of failures or disasters.
• Database software patches: The customer is responsible for applying patches and updates to the database software on the EC2 instances, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, or SQL Server. Database software patches are important for fixing bugs, improving features, and addressing security vulnerabilities.
• Database software install: The customer is responsible for installing the database software on the EC2 instances, choosing the version and configuration that meets their requirements. AWS provides some preconfigured AMIs (Amazon Machine Images) that include common database software, or the customer can use their own custom AMIs.

References:

• Shared Responsibility Model - Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Shared responsibility model - Amazon Web Services: Risk and Compliance
• Patching Amazon EC2 instances - AWS Systems Manager
• Amazon EC2 FAQs - Amazon Web Services
• Maintenance and Retirements - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
• [Hardware Lifecycle - Amazon Web Services (AWS)]
• [Backing Up Your Data - Amazon Web Services (AWS)]
• [Database Patching - Amazon Web Services (AWS)]
• [Installing Database Software on Amazon EC2 Instances - Amazon Web Services (AWS)]

• Understanding Amazon Snowball Edge: Amazon Snowball Edge is a data migration and edge computing device that helps in transferring large amounts of data to and from AWS.
• No-Cost Activities:
• How to Utilize Snowball Edge:

References:

• Amazon Snowball Edge Pricing
• Amazon Snowball Edge Documentation

The company is following the best practice of implementing loosely coupled dependencies by migrating the application to AWS and dividing the application into microservices. Loosely coupled dependencies are a design principle of the AWS Well-Architected Framework that helps to reduce the interdependencies between components and improve the scalability, reliability, and performance of the system. By breaking down the monolithic application into smaller, independent, and modular services, the company can reduce the complexity and maintenance costs, increase the agility and flexibility, and enable faster and more frequent deployments. AWS CloudFormation is an AWS service that provides the ability to manage infrastructure as code. Infrastructure as code is a process of defining and provisioning AWS resources using code or templates, rather than manual actions or scripts. AWS CloudFormation allows users to create and update stacks of AWS resources based on predefined templates that describe the desired state and configuration of the resources. AWS CloudFormation automates and simplifies the deployment and management of AWS resources, and ensures consistency and repeatability across different environments and regions. AWS CloudFormation also supports rollback, change sets, drift detection, and nested stacks features that help users to monitor and control the changes to their infrastructure. References: Implementing Loosely Coupled Dependencies, What is AWS CloudFormation?

The AWS services that are supported by Savings Plans are:

• Amazon EC2: Amazon EC2 is a service that provides scalable computing capacity in the AWS cloud. You can use Amazon EC2 to launch virtual servers, configure security and networking, and manage storage. Amazon EC2 is eligible for both Compute Savings Plans and EC2 Instance Savings Plans12.
• Amazon SageMaker: Amazon SageMaker is a service that helps you build and deploy machine learning models. You can use Amazon SageMaker to access Jupyter notebooks, use common machine learning algorithms, train and tune models, and deploy them to a hosted environment. Amazon SageMaker is eligible for SageMaker Savings Plans13.

The other options are not supported by Savings Plans. Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon DynamoDB are database services that are eligible for Reserved Instances, but not Savings Plans4.

On-Demand Instances are the most cost-efficient pricing model for an uninterruptible workload that runs once a year for 24 hours. On-Demand Instances let you pay for compute capacity by the hour or second, depending on which instances you run. No long-term commitments or up-front payments are required. You can increase or decrease your compute capacity to meet the demands of your application and only pay the specified hourly rates for the instance you use1. This model is suitable for developing/testing applications with short-term or unpredictable workloads2. The other pricing models are not cost-efficient for this use case. Reserved Instances and Savings Plans require a commitment to a consistent amount of usage, in USD per hour, for a term of 1 or 3 years. They provide significant discounts compared to On-Demand Instances, but they are not flexible or scalable for workloads that run only once a year12. Spot Instances are the cheapest option, but they are not suitable for uninterruptible workloads, as they can be reclaimed by AWS at any time. They are recommended for applications that have flexible start and end times, or that are only feasible at very low compute prices12. Dedicated Instances are designed for compliance and licensing requirements, not for cost optimization. They are more expensive than the other options, as they run on single-tenant hardware12. References: Amazon EC2 – Secure and resizable compute capacity – AWS, Amazon EC2 - How AWS Pricing Works

Amazon EC2 is a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It allows you to launch virtual servers, called instances, with different configurations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. AWS Compute Optimizer analyzes the specifications and utilization metrics of your Amazon EC2 instances and generates recommendations for optimal instance types that can reduce costs and improve performance. You can view the recommendations on the AWS Compute Optimizer console or the Amazon EC2 console12.

Amazon RDS, Amazon Lightsail, and AWS Step Functions are not supported by AWS Compute Optimizer. Amazon RDS is a managed relational database service that lets you set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. Amazon Lightsail is an easy-to-use cloud platform that offers everything you need to build an application or website, plus a cost-effective, monthly plan. AWS Step Functions lets you coordinate multiple AWS services into serverless workflows so you can build and update apps quickly3 .

AWS Shield is a managed DDoS protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS attacks are malicious attempts to disrupt the normal functioning of a website or application by overwhelming it with a large volume of traffic from multiple sources. AWS Shield provides two tiers of protection: Standard and Advanced. AWS Shield Standard is automatically enabled for all AWS customers at no additional cost. It protects your AWS resources, such as Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator, and Amazon Route 53, from the most common and frequently occurring network and transport layer DDoS attacks. AWS Shield Advanced is an optional paid service that provides additional protection for your AWS resources and applications, such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), and AWS Elastic Beanstalk. AWS Shield Advanced offers enhanced detection and mitigation capabilities, 24/7 access to the AWS DDoS Response Team (DRT), real-time visibility and reporting, and cost protection against DDoS-related spikes in your AWS bill12

References: AWS Shield, What is a DDOS Attack & How to Protect Your Site Against One

Amazon S3 is the AWS service that offers object storage. Object storage is a technology that stores and manages data in an unstructured format called objects. Each object consists of the data, metadata, and a unique identifier. Object storage is ideal for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as photos, videos, email, web pages, sensor data, and audio files1. Amazon S3 provides industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance for object storage2.

Amazon RDS is the AWS service that offers relational database storage. Relational database storage is a technology that stores and manages data in a structured format called tables. Each table consists of rows and columns that define the attributes and values of the data. Relational database storage is ideal for storing structured or semi-structured data, such as customer records, inventory, transactions, and analytics3.

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) is the AWS service that offers file storage. File storage is a technology that stores and manages data in a hierarchical format called files and folders. Each file consists of the data and metadata, and each folder consists of files or subfolders. File storage is ideal for storing shared data that can be accessed by multiple users or applications, such as home directories, content repositories, media libraries, and configuration files4.

Amazon DynamoDB is the AWS service that offers NoSQL database storage. NoSQL database storage is a technology that stores and manages data in a flexible format called documents or key-value pairs. Each document or key-value pair consists of the data and metadata, and can have different attributes and values depending on the schema. NoSQL database storage is ideal for storing dynamic or unstructured data that requires high performance, scalability, and availability, such as web applications, social media, gaming, and IoT.

• Understanding Performance Efficiency: This pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework focuses on using computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements and maintain that efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.
• Key Aspects of Performance Efficiency:
• How to Implement Performance Efficiency:

References:

• AWS Well-Architected Framework
• Performance Efficiency Pillar

AWS Artifact is a service that provides on-demand access to security and compliance reports from AWS and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who sell their products on AWS Marketplace. You can use AWS Artifact to download auditor-issued reports, certifications, accreditations, and other third-party attestations of AWS compliance with various standards and regulations, such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, GDPR, and more1234. You can also use AWS Artifact to review, accept, and manage your agreements with AWS and apply them to current and future accounts within your organization2. References: 1: Cloud Compliance - Amazon Web Services (AWS), 2: Security Compliance Management - AWS Artifact - AWS, 3: AWS Compliance Contact Us - Amazon Web Services, 4: AWS SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE

AWS performs some tasks automatically to help you manage and secure your AWS resources. One of these tasks is patching Amazon EC2 instances. AWS provides two options for patching your EC2 instances: managed instances and patch baselines. Managed instances are a group of EC2 instances or on-premises servers that you can manage using AWS Systems Manager. Patch baselines define the patches that AWS Systems Manager applies to your instances. You can use AWS Systems Manager to automate the process of patching your instances based on a schedule or a maintenance window.

 Amazon QuickSight is an AWS service that provides business intelligence and data visualization capabilities. Amazon QuickSight enables you to ingest, analyze, and display data from various sources, such as AWS Cost and Usage Reports, Amazon S3, Amazon Athena, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon RDS. You can use Amazon QuickSight to create interactive dashboards and charts that show insights and trends from your data. You can also share your dashboards and charts with other users or embed them into your applications.

The AWS best practice for using the AWS account root user credentials is to use them only when they alone must be used to perform a required function. The AWS account root user credentials have full access to all the resources in the account, and therefore pose a security risk if compromised or misused. You should create individual IAM users with the minimum necessary permissions for everyday tasks, and use AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts. You should also enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) and rotate the password for the root user regularly. Some of the functions that require the root user credentials are changing the account name, closing the account, changing the support plan, and restoring an IAM user’s access.

 AWS is responsible for performing hardware maintenance in the AWS facilities that run the AWS Cloud. This is part of the shared responsibility model, where AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, and the customer is responsible for security in the cloud. AWS is also responsible for the global infrastructure that runs all of the services offered in the AWS Cloud, including the hardware, software, networking, and facilities that run AWS Cloud services3. The customer is responsible for the guest operating system, including updates and security patches, as well as the web application and services developed with Docker4.

Amazon Cognito is a service that enables you to add user sign-up and sign-in features to your web and mobile applications. Amazon Cognito also supports social and enterprise identity federation, which means you can allow your users to sign in with their existing credentials from identity providers such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon. Amazon Cognito integrates with OpenID Connect (OIDC) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 protocols to facilitate the authentication and authorization process. Amazon Cognito also provides advanced security features, such as adaptive authentication, user verification, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). References: Amazon Cognito, What is Amazon Cognito?

 The AWS services or features that can control VPC traffic are security groups and network ACLs. Security groups are stateful firewalls that control the inbound and outbound traffic at the instance level. You can assign one or more security groups to each instance in a VPC, and specify the rules that allow or deny traffic based on the protocol, port, and source or destination. Network ACLs are stateless firewalls that control the inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level. You can associate one network ACL with each subnet in a VPC, and specify the rules that allow or deny traffic based on the protocol, port, and source or destination. AWS Direct Connect, Amazon GuardDuty, and Amazon Connect are not services or features that can control VPC traffic. AWS Direct Connect is a service that establishes a dedicated network connection between your premises and AWS. Amazon GuardDuty is a service that monitors your AWS account and workloads for malicious or unauthorized activity. Amazon Connect is a service that provides a cloud-based contact center solution.

 EFS Standard-Infrequent Access (EFS Standard-IA) is the storage class that meets the requirements of storing data across multiple Availability Zones in an AWS Region, that will not be accessed regularly but must be immediately retrievable, most cost-effectively. EFS Standard-IA is designed for files that are accessed less frequently, but still require the same high performance, low latency, and high availability as EFS Standard. EFS Standard-IA has a lower storage cost than EFS Standard, but charges a small additional fee for each access. EFS One Zone and EFS One Zone-IA store data in a single Availability Zone, which reduces the availability and durability compared to EFS Standard and EFS Standard-IA.

 AWS Trusted Advisor and AWS Compute Optimizer are the AWS services that can provide information to the company about whether its newly imported Amazon EC2 instances are the appropriate size and type. AWS Trusted Advisor is an online tool that provides best practices recommendations in five categories: cost optimization, performance, security, fault tolerance, and service limits. AWS Trusted Advisor can help users identify underutilized or idle EC2 instances, and suggest ways to reduce costs and improve performance. AWS Compute Optimizer is a service that analyzes the configuration and utilization metrics of EC2 instances and delivers recommendations for optimal instance types, sizes, and configurations. AWS Compute Optimizer helps users improve performance, reduce costs, and eliminate underutilized resources

The advantage that users experience when they move on-premises workloads to the AWS Cloud is: elimination of expenses for running and maintaining data centers. By moving on-premises workloads to the AWS Cloud, users can reduce or eliminate the costs associated with owning and operating physical servers, storage, network equipment, and facilities. These costs include hardware purchase, maintenance, repair, power, cooling, security, and staff. Users can also benefit from the pay-as-you-go pricing model of AWS, which allows them to pay only for the resources they use, and scale up or down as needed.

 The AWS service that the company should use for the data warehouse is Amazon Redshift. Amazon Redshift is a fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service that is optimized for analytical queries. It can integrate with various data sources and business intelligence tools to provide fast and cost-effective insights. Amazon Redshift also offers high availability, scalability, security, and compliance features. [Amazon Redshift Overview]

The correct answer is B because Spot Instances enable the company to optimize costs and meet the requirements. Spot Instances are spare EC2 instances that are available at up to 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices. Spot Instances are suitable for stateless, fault-tolerant, and flexible applications that can run for any duration. The other options are incorrect because they do not enable the company to optimize costs and meet the requirements. Reserved Instances are EC2 instances that are reserved for a specific period of time (one or three years) in exchange for a lower hourly rate. Reserved Instances are suitable for steady-state or predictable workloads that run for a long duration. On-Demand Instances are EC2 instances that are launched and billed at a fixed hourly rate. On-Demand Instances are suitable for short-term, irregular, or unpredictable workloads that cannot be interrupted. Dedicated Instances are EC2 instances that run on hardware that is dedicated to a single customer. Dedicated Instances are suitable for workloads that require regulatory compliance or data isolation. Reference: [Amazon EC2 Instance Purchasing Options]

Managing service control policies (SCPs) is an activity that companies can complete by using AWS Organizations. AWS Organizations is a service that enables the user to consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an organization that can be managed as a single unit. AWS Organizations allows the user to create groups of accounts and apply policies to them, such as service control policies (SCPs) that specify the services and actions that users and roles can access in the accounts. AWS Organizations also enables the user to use consolidated billing, which combines the usage and charges from all the accounts in the organization into a single bill3.

 Security groups and network access control lists (network ACLs) are two AWS network services or features that allow CIDR block notation when providing an IP address range. Security groups act as a firewall for associated Amazon EC2 instances, controlling both inbound and outbound traffic at the instance level. Network ACLs act as a firewall for associated subnets, controlling both inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level. Both security groups and network ACLs use CIDR block notation to specify the IP address ranges that are allowed or denied

Amazon Workspaces is the AWS service that provides the functionality of remotely accessing virtual desktop computers from the internet. Amazon Workspaces is a fully managed, secure desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solution that allows users to provision cloud-based virtual desktops and access them from anywhere, using any supported device. Amazon Workspaces helps users reduce the complexity and cost of managing and maintaining physical desktops, and provides a consistent and secure user experience

 Pay-as-you-go pricing is the feature of the AWS Cloud that gives users the ability to pay based on current needs rather than forecasted needs. Pay-as-you-go pricing means that users only pay for the AWS services and resources they use, without any upfront or long-term commitments. This allows users to scale up or down their usage depending on their changing business requirements, and avoid paying for idle or unused capacity. Pay-as-you-go pricing also enables users to benefit from the economies of scale and lower costs of AWS as they grow their business5

 AWS Config is a service that enables users to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of AWS resources. It continuously monitors and records the configuration changes of the resources and evaluates them against desired configurations and best practices. It also provides a detailed view of the resource configuration history and relationships, as well as compliance reports and notifications. AWS Config can help users maintain consistent and secure configurations, troubleshoot issues, and simplify compliance auditing. AWS Config OverviewAWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - aws.amazon.com

Amazon RDS is the AWS service that will meet the requirements of migrating a relational database server to the AWS Cloud and minimizing administrative overhead of database maintenance tasks. Amazon RDS is a fully managed relational database service that handles routine database tasks, such as provisioning, patching, backup, recovery, failure detection, and repair. Amazon RDS supports several database engines, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and Amazon Aurora5.

AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory is the AWS service that provides a managed Microsoft Active Directory in the AWS Cloud. It enables the user to use their existing Active Directory users, groups, and policies to access AWS resources, such as Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon S3 buckets, and AWS Single Sign-On. It also integrates with other Microsoft applications and services, such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office 365, and Microsoft SharePoint

Rightsizing is the cloud concept that this analysis demonstrates. Rightsizing is the process of optimizing the performance and cost of your AWS resources by selecting the most appropriate type, size, and configuration based on your workload requirements and usage patterns. Rightsizing can help you achieve potential cost savings by reducing the over-provisioning or under-utilization of your resources. You can use various AWS tools and services, such as AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Compute Optimizer, and AWS Trusted Advisor, to analyze your resource utilization and performance metrics, and receive recommendations for rightsizing.

 AWS CloudFormation is a service that gives developers and businesses an easy way to create a collection of related AWS and third-party resources, and provision and manage them in an orderly and predictable fashion. You can use AWS CloudFormation’s sample templates or create your own templates to describe the AWS and third-party resources, and any associated dependencies or runtime parameters, required to run your application.

AWS Enterprise Support is the AWS Support plan that assigns an AWS concierge agent to a company’s account. AWS Enterprise Support is the highest level of support that AWS offers, and it provides the most comprehensive and personalized assistance. An AWS concierge agent is a dedicated technical account manager who acts as a single point of contact for the company and helps to optimize the AWS environment, resolve issues, and access AWS experts. For more information, see [AWS Support Plans] and [AWS Concierge Support].

 The correct answer is C because AWS Trusted Advisor is an AWS service or tool that provides users with the ability to monitor AWS service quotas. AWS Trusted Advisor is an online tool that provides users with real-time guidance to help them provision their resources following AWS best practices. One of the categories of checks that AWS Trusted Advisor performs is service limits, which monitors the usage of each AWS service and alerts users when they are close to reaching the default limit. The other options are incorrect because they are not AWS services or tools that provide users with the ability to monitor AWS service quotas. AWS CloudTrail is a service that enables users to track user activity and API usage across their AWS account. AWS Cost and Usage Reports is a tool that enables users to access comprehensive information about their AWS costs and usage. AWS Budgets is a tool that enables users to plan their service usage, costs, and reservations. Reference: [AWS Trusted Advisor FAQs]

The correct answers are D and E because AWS offers high availability and AWS provides economies of scale are benefits that a company receives when it moves an on-premises production workload to AWS. High availability means that AWS has a global infrastructure that allows customers to deploy their applications and data across multiple regions and availability zones. This increases the fault tolerance and resilience of their applications and reduces the impact of failures. Economies of scale means that AWS can achieve lower variable costs than customers can get on their own. This allows customers to pay only for the resources they use and scale up or down as needed. The other options are incorrect because they are not benefits that a company receives when it moves an on-premises production workload to AWS. AWS trains the company’s staff on the use of all the AWS services is not a benefit that a company receives when it moves an on-premises production workload to AWS. AWS does provide various learning resources and training courses for customers, but it does not train the company’s staff on the use of all the AWS services. AWS manages all security in the cloud is not a benefit that a company receives when it moves an on-premises production workload to AWS. AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, but the customer is responsible for the security in the cloud. AWS offers free support from technical account managers (TAMs) is not a benefit that a company receives when it moves an on-premises production workload to AWS. AWS does offer support from TAMs, but only for customers who have the AWS Enterprise Support plan, which is not free. Reference: What is Cloud Computing?, [AWS Shared Responsibility Model], [AWS Support Plans]

AWS customers are responsible for enabling encryption of data at rest for Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS). Amazon EBS encryption offers a simple encryption solution for your EBS volumes that does not require you to build, maintain, and secure your own key management infrastructure. You can encrypt both the boot and data volumes of your EC2 instances. You can use AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) customer master keys (CMKs) or your own CMKs to encrypt your volumes2.

Amazon S3 is the AWS service that provides highly durable object storage. Amazon S3 is designed to provide 99.999999999% durability of objects over a given year. This means that you can store your data with high confidence that it will not be lost. Amazon S3 also provides high availability, scalability, security, and performance for your data. You can use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web5.

Management of the guest operating systems is a customer’s responsibility, according to the AWS shared responsibility model. The AWS shared responsibility model defines the different security and compliance responsibilities of AWS and the customer. AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, which includes the physical infrastructure, hardware, software, and facilities that run the AWS Cloud. The customer is responsible for security in the cloud, which includes the configuration and management of the guest operating systems, applications, data, and network traffic protection

The correct answer is B because Amazon ElastiCache is a service that provides in-memory data storage. Amazon ElastiCache is a fully managed, scalable, and high-performance service that supports two popular open-source in-memory engines: Redis and Memcached. Amazon ElastiCache allows users to store and retrieve data from fast, low-latency, and high-throughput in-memory systems. Users can use Amazon ElastiCache to improve the performance of their applications by caching frequently accessed data, reducing database load, and enabling real-time data processing. The other options are incorrect because they are not services that provide in-memory data storage. Amazon DynamoDB is a service that provides key-value and document data storage. Amazon RDS is a service that provides relational data storage. Amazon Timestream is a service that provides time series data storage. Reference: Amazon ElastiCache FAQs

The correct answer is C because Spot Instances are the pricing model that enables the company to run its existing custom, nonproduction workloads in the AWS Cloud quickly and cost-effectively. Spot Instances are spare Amazon EC2 instances that are available at up to 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices. Spot Instances are suitable for stateless, fault-tolerant, and flexible workloads that can recover from interruptions easily. The other options are incorrect because they are not the pricing model that enables the company to run its existing custom, nonproduction workloads in the AWS Cloud quickly and cost-effectively. Reserved Instances are Amazon EC2 instances that are reserved for a specific period of time (one or three years) in exchange for a lower hourly rate. Reserved Instances are suitable for steady-state or predictable workloads that run for a long duration. On-Demand Instances are Amazon EC2 instances that are launched and billed at a fixed hourly rate. On-Demand Instances are suitable for short-term, irregular, or unpredictable workloads that cannot be interrupted. Dedicated Hosts are physical servers that are dedicated to a single customer. Dedicated Hosts are suitable for workloads that require regulatory compliance or data isolation. Reference: Amazon EC2 Instance Purchasing Options

The pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework that is supported by the goals of protecting AWS Cloud information, systems, and assets while performing risk assessment and mitigation tasks is security. Security is the ability to protect information, systems, and assets while delivering business value through risk assessments and mitigation strategies. The security pillar covers topics such as identity and access management, data protection, infrastructure protection, detective controls, incident response, and compliance

AWS Budgets gives you the ability to set custom budgets that alert you when your costs or usage exceed (or are forecasted to exceed) your budgeted amount. You can also use AWS Budgets to set reservation utilization or coverage targets and receive alerts when your utilization drops below the threshold you define2.

The user authentication services managed by AWS are: Amazon Cognito and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). These services help users securely manage and control access to their AWS resources and applications. Amazon Cognito is a service that provides user sign-up, sign-in, and access control for web and mobile applications. Amazon Cognito supports various identity providers, such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon, as well as custom user pools. AWS IAM is a service that enables users to create and manage users, groups, roles, and permissions for AWS services and resources. AWS IAM supports various authentication methods, such as passwords, access keys, and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

 AWS Health API is available to a company that has an AWS Business Support plan. The AWS Health API provides programmatic access to the AWS Health information that is presented in the AWS Personal Health Dashboard. The AWS Health API can help users get timely and personalized information about events that can affect the availability and performance of their AWS resources, such as scheduled maintenance, network issues, or service disruptions. The AWS Health API can also integrate with other AWS services, such as Amazon CloudWatch Events and AWS Lambda, to enable automated actions and notifications. AWS Health API OverviewAWS Support Plans

The statement that is true regarding pricing for these eight instances is: four instances will be charged as RIs, and four will be charged as regular instances. Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances (RIs) are a pricing model that allows users to reserve EC2 instances for a specific term and benefit from discounted hourly rates and capacity reservation. RIs are purchased for a specific AWS Region, and can be shared across multiple accounts in an organization in AWS Organizations for consolidated billing. However, RIs are applied on a first-come, first-served basis, and there is no guarantee that all instances in the organization will be charged at the RI rate. In this case, Account A has purchased five RIs and has four instances running, so all four instances will be charged at the RI rate. Account B has not purchased any RIs and also has four instances running, so all four instances will be charged at the regular rate. The remaining RI in Account A will not be applied to any instance in Account B, and will be wasted.

 Amazon S3 offers unlimited storage for any amount of data. You can store as many objects as you want, and each object can be as large as 5 terabytes. You pay only for the storage space that you actually use, and there are no minimum commitments or upfront fees. Amazon S3 also provides high durability, availability, scalability, and security for your data.

Designing for automatic failover to healthy resources is an AWS best practice when designing AWS workloads to be operational even when there are component failures. This means that you should architect your system to handle the loss of one or more components without impacting the availability or performance of your application. You can use various AWS services and features to achieve this, such as Auto Scaling, Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon Route 53, Amazon CloudFormation, and AWS CloudFormation4.

Availability Zones are physically separate locations within an AWS Region that are engineered to be isolated from failures. Each Availability Zone has independent power, cooling, and physical security, and is connected to other Availability Zones in the same Region by a low-latency network. Therefore, the correct answers are A and D. You can learn more about Availability Zones and their characteristics from this page.

 Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a service that provides fully managed relational database engines. Amazon RDS supports several database engines, including Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, and Amazon Aurora. Amazon RDS can be used to migrate an application that includes an Oracle database to AWS without rewriting the application, as long as the application is compatible with the Oracle version and edition supported by Amazon RDS. Amazon RDS can also provide benefits such as high availability, scalability, security, backup and restore, and performance optimization. [Amazon RDS Overview] AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - aws.amazon.com

Cost optimization is the pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework that focuses on the return on investment of moving into the AWS Cloud. Cost optimization means that users can achieve the desired business outcomes at the lowest possible price point, while maintaining high performance and reliability. Cost optimization can be achieved by using various AWS features and best practices, such as pay-as-you-go pricing, right-sizing, elasticity, reserved instances, spot instances, cost allocation tags, cost and usage reports, and AWS Trusted Advisor. [AWS Well-Architected Framework] AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - aws.amazon.com

 Amazon Personalize is a fully managed machine learning service that customers can use to generate personalized recommendations for their users. It can also generate user segments based on the users’ affinity for certain items or item metadata. Amazon Personalize uses the customers’ data to train and deploy custom recommendation models that can be integrated into their applications. Therefore, the correct answer is B. You can learn more about Amazon Personalize and its use cases from this page.

 AWS offers different support plans to meet the needs of different customers. The AWS Enterprise Support plan is the highest level of support that provides customers with concierge-like service, where the main focus is helping them achieve their outcomes and find success in the cloud. One of the benefits of the AWS Enterprise Support plan is that customers get designated support from an AWS technical account manager (TAM), who provides consultative architectural and operational guidance based on their applications and use cases. Therefore, the correct answer is B. You can learn more about AWS support plans and their benefits from this page.

 The correct answer is A because an Availability Zone consists of one or more data centers in a single location. An Availability Zone is an isolated location within an AWS Region that has independent power, cooling, and networking. Each Availability Zone has one or more data centers that host the physical servers and storage devices that run the AWS services. The other options are incorrect because they are not accurate descriptions of an Availability Zone. Two or more data centers in multiple locations are not an Availability Zone, but rather multiple Availability Zones within an AWS Region. One or more physical hosts in a single data center are not an Availability Zone, but rather the components of a data center within an Availability Zone. Two or more physical hosts in multiple data centers are not an Availability Zone, but rather the components of multiple data centers within one or more Availability Zones. Reference: [Regions, Availability Zones, and Local Zones]

The company can use AWS Organizations to track the combined AWS usage costs of all of its linked accounts. AWS Organizations is a service that enables you to consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an organization that you can manage centrally. You can use AWS Organizations to create a consolidated billing report that shows the charges incurred by each account in your organization as well as the total charges across all accounts. You can also use AWS Organizations to apply policies and controls to your accounts to help you manage costs and security5.

AWS Pricing Calculator is a web-based planning tool that customers can use to create estimates for their AWS use cases. They can use it to model their solutions before building them, explore the AWS service price points, and review the calculations behind their estimates. Therefore, the correct answer is A. You can learn more about AWS Pricing Calculator and how it works from this page.

 Access to all AWS resources will be denied if a newly created IAM user has no IAM policy attached and logs in and attempts to view the AWS resources in the account. IAM policies are the way to grant permissions to IAM users, groups, and roles to access and manage AWS resources. By default, IAM users have no permissions, unless they are explicitly granted by an IAM policy. Therefore, a newly created IAM user without any IAM policy attached will not be able to view or perform any actions on the AWS resources in the account. Access to the AWS billing services and AWS CLI will also be denied, unless the user has the necessary permissions.

 The correct answer is C because learning to improve from operational failures is a recommended design principle of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a set of best practices and guidelines for designing and operating reliable, secure, efficient, and cost-effective systems in the cloud. The AWS Well-Architected Framework consists of five pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Each pillar has a set of design principles that describe the characteristics of a well-architected system. Learning to improve from operational failures is a design principle of the operational excellence pillar, which focuses on running and monitoring systems to deliver business value and continually improve supporting processes and procedures. The other options are incorrect because they are not recommended design principles of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Reducing downtime by making infrastructure changes infrequently and in large increments is not a design principle of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, but rather a source of risk and inefficiency. A well-architected system should implement changes frequently and in small increments to minimize the impact and scope of failures. Investing the time to configure infrastructure manually is not a design principle of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, but rather a source of human error and inconsistency. A well-architected system should automate manual tasks to improve the speed and accuracy of operations. Using monolithic application design for centralization is not a design principle of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, but rather a source of complexity and rigidity. A well-architected system should use loosely coupled and distributed components to enable scalability and resilience. Reference: [AWS Well-Architected Framework]

 According to the AWS shared responsibility model, AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, while the user is responsible for the security in the cloud. This means that AWS manages the security and maintenance of the underlying infrastructure, such as the servers, networks, and operating systems, while the user manages the security and configuration of the resources and applications that run on AWS. For AWS Lambda functions, the tasks that are the user’s responsibility are:

• Establish the IAM permissions that define who can run the Lambda functions. IAM is a service that enables users to manage access and permissions for AWS resources and users. Users can create IAM policies, roles, and users to grant or deny permissions to run Lambda functions, invoke other AWS services, or access AWS resources from Lambda functions. [AWS Lambda Permissions] AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - aws.amazon.com
• Write the code for the Lambda functions to define the application logic. Lambda functions are units of code that can be written in any supported programming language, such as Python, Node.js, Java, or Go. Users can write the code for the Lambda functions using the AWS Management Console, the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), the AWS SDKs, or any code editor of their choice. Users can also use AWS Lambda Layers to share and manage common code and dependencies across multiple functions. [AWS Lambda Overview] AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - aws.amazon.com

 Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) and Amazon FSx offer file storage. File storage is a type of storage that organizes data into files and folders, and allows multiple users or applications to access and share the same files over a network. Amazon EFS is a fully managed, scalable, and elastic file system that supports the Network File System (NFS) protocol and can be used with Amazon EC2 instances and AWS Lambda functions. Amazon FSx is a fully managed service that provides two file system options: Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, which supports the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol and is compatible with Microsoft Windows applications; and Amazon FSx for Lustre, which is a high-performance file system that is optimized for compute-intensive workloads

The Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class offers automatic cost savings by moving objects between tiers based on access pattern changes. This storage class is designed for data with unknown or changing access patterns. It has two access tiers: frequent access and infrequent access. Objects are stored in the frequent access tier by default, and are moved to the infrequent access tier after 30 consecutive days of no access. If an object in the infrequent access tier is accessed, it is moved back to the frequent access tier. There are no retrieval fees in S3 Intelligent-Tiering, and no additional tiering fees when objects are moved between access tiers within the S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class1.

 AWS Pricing Calculator can be used to estimate costs before deployment. AWS Pricing Calculator is a tool that helps the user to compare the cost of AWS services for different use cases and configurations. The user can create estimates for various AWS services, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and more. The user can also adjust the parameters, such as region, instance type, storage size, and duration, to see how they affect the cost. AWS Pricing Calculator provides a detailed breakdown of the estimated cost, as well as a summary of the key drivers of the cost.

 Increased business agility is the benefit of the AWS Cloud that this scenario demonstrates. Business agility refers to the ability of a company to adapt to changing customer needs, market conditions, and competitive pressures. Moving to the AWS Cloud enables business agility by providing faster access to resources, lower upfront costs, and greater scalability and flexibility. By using the AWS Cloud, the company can launch new marketing campaigns in 3 days instead of 3 weeks, which shows that it can respond to customer feedback more quickly and efficiently. For more information, see Benefits of Cloud Computing and [Business Agility].

Amazon EC2 is the AWS service that requires the customer to be fully responsible for applying operating system patches. Amazon EC2 is a service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Customers can launch virtual servers called instances and choose from various configurations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources1. Customers have full control and access to their instances, which means they are also responsible for managing and maintaining them, including applying operating system patches2. Customers can use AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager, a feature of AWS Systems Manager, to automate the process of patching their EC2 instances with both security-related updates and other types of updates3.

A company wants an AWS service to collect and process 10 TB of data locally and transfer the data to AWS. The company has intermittent connectivity.

Which AWS service will meet these requirements?

• AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)
• AWS DataSync
• AWS Backup
• AWS Snowball Edge

Answer: D

The correct answer is D. AWS Snowball Edge.

AWS Snowball Edge is a physical device that can be used to collect and process data locally and then transfer it to AWS. It is designed for situations where there is limited or intermittent network connectivity, or where bandwidth costs are high. AWS Snowball Edge can store up to 80 TB of data and has compute and storage capabilities to run applications on the device1.

AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) is a service that helps migrate databases to AWS. It does not collect or process data locally, nor does it work offline2.

AWS DataSync is a service that helps transfer data between on-premises storage systems and AWS storage services. It does not collect or process data locally, and it requires a network connection to work3.

AWS Backup is a service that helps automate and manage backups across AWS services. It does not collect or process data locally, nor does it transfer data to AWS. It only backs up data that is already in AWS4.

References:

1: AWS Snowball Edge 2: AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) 3: AWS DataSync 4: AWS Backup

 AWS Organizations is an account management service that enables you to consolidate multiple AWS accounts into an organization that you create and centrally manage. AWS Organizations includes consolidated billing and account management capabilities that enable you to better meet the budgetary, security, and compliance needs of your business1.

The correct answer is A because Amazon AppStream 2.0 is a service that will help the company deploy the application without investing in backend infrastructure or high end client hardware. Amazon AppStream 2.0 is a fully managed, secure application streaming service that allows customers to stream desktop applications from AWS to any device running a web browser. Amazon AppStream 2.0 handles the provisioning, scaling, patching, and maintenance of the backend infrastructure, and delivers high performance and responsive user experience. The other options are incorrect because they are not services that will help the company deploy the application without investing in backend infrastructure or high end client hardware. AWS AppSync is a service that enables customers to create flexible APIs for synchronizing data across multiple data sources. Amazon WorkLink is a service that enables customers to provide secure, one-click access to internal websites and web apps from mobile devices. AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a service that enables customers to deploy and manage web applications using popular platforms such as Java, .NET, PHP, and Node.js. Reference: [Amazon AppStream 2.0 FAQs]

Economies of scale is the advantage of AWS Cloud computing that minimizes variable costs. Economies of scale refers to the reduction in the cost per unit as the output increases. AWS Cloud computing leverages economies of scale by providing a large pool of shared resources that can be accessed on demand and paid for as needed. AWS Cloud computing also passes the cost savings to the customers by offering lower prices and discounts. For more information, see Economies of Scale and AWS Pricing.

Architecture optimization is the best practice for cost governance that this example shows. Architecture optimization is the process of designing and implementing AWS solutions that are efficient, scalable, and cost-effective. By using specific AWS services to improve efficiency and reduce cost, the company is following the architecture optimization best practice. Some of the techniques for architecture optimization include using the right size and type of resources, leveraging elasticity and scalability, choosing the most suitable storage class, and using serverless and managed services2.

 The AWS service or feature that the company should use to categorize and track AWS usage cost based on business categories is cost allocation tags. Cost allocation tags are key-value pairs that users can attach to AWS resources to organize and track their AWS costs. Users can use cost allocation tags to filter and group their AWS costs by categories such as project, department, environment, or application. Users can also use cost allocation tags to generate detailed billing reports that show the costs associated with each tag3. AWS Organizations, AWS Security Hub, and AWS Cost and Usage Report are other AWS services or features that can help users with different aspects of their AWS usage, such as managing multiple accounts, monitoring security issues, or analyzing billing data, but they do not enable users to categorize and track AWS costs based on business categories.

 AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS. AWS Shield provides always-on detection and automatic inline mitigations that minimize application downtime and latency, so there is no need to engage AWS Support to benefit from DDoS protection3.

 Pay-as-you-go pricing is an AWS benefit that demonstrates the ability of users to replace upfront fixed expenses with variable expenses. With pay-as-you-go pricing, users only pay for the resources they consume, without any long-term contracts or commitments. This can lower the total cost of ownership and increase the return on investment. Pay-as-you-go pricing also provides flexibility and scalability, as users can adjust their resource usage according to their changing needs and demands. AWS Cloud Value FrameworkAWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - aws.amazon.com

Amazon Redshift is a fast, fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service that makes it simple and cost-effective to analyze all your data using your existing business intelligence tools. You can start small with no commitments, and scale to petabytes for less than a tenth of the cost of traditional solutions. Amazon Redshift does not require manual hardware and software management, as AWS handles all the tasks such as provisioning, patching, backup, recovery, failure detection, and repair12. Amazon Redshift also offers serverless capabilities, which allow you to access and analyze data without any configurations or capacity planning. Amazon Redshift automatically scales the data warehouse capacity to deliver fast performance for even the most demanding and unpredictable workloads3. Therefore, Amazon Redshift meets the requirements of the company, compared to the other options.

The other options are not suitable for the company’s requirements, because:

• Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) is a fast, scalable, highly available, and fully managed document database service that supports MongoDB workloads. It is not designed for petabyte-scale data warehousing or analytics4.
• Amazon Neptune is a fast, reliable, and fully managed graph database service that makes it easy to build and run applications that work with highly connected datasets. It is not designed for petabyte-scale data warehousing or analytics5.
• Amazon ElastiCache is a fully managed in-memory data store and cache service that supports Redis and Memcached. It is not designed for petabyte-scale data warehousing or analytics.

References:

• What is Amazon Redshift? - Amazon Redshift
• Amazon Redshift Features - Amazon Redshift
• Amazon Redshift Serverless - Amazon Redshift
• What Is Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility)? - Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility)
• What Is Amazon Neptune? - Amazon Neptune
• [What Is Amazon ElastiCache for Redis? - Amazon ElastiCache for Redis]

AWS Auto Scaling is the AWS service or tool that will meet the requirements of ensuring that the application can respond to changes in demand at the lowest possible cost. AWS Auto Scaling allows users to automatically adjust the number of Amazon EC2 instances based on the application’s performance and availability needs. AWS Auto Scaling can also optimize costs by helping users select the most cost-effective EC2 instances for their application1

 Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is a solution that meets the requirements of deploying and managing a Docker-based application on AWS with the least amount of operational overhead. Amazon ECS is a fully managed container orchestration service that makes it easy to run, scale, and secure Docker container applications on AWS. Amazon ECS eliminates the need for you to install, operate, and scale your own cluster management infrastructure. With simple API calls, you can launch and stop container-enabled applications, query the complete state of your cluster, and access many familiar features like security groups, Elastic Load Balancing, EBS volumes, and IAM roles3.

A network access control list (network ACL) is a feature that acts as a firewall for controlling traffic in and out of one or more subnets in a virtual private cloud (VPC). AWS Security Hub is a service that provides a comprehensive view of the security posture of AWS accounts and resources. Security groups are features that act as firewalls for controlling traffic at the instance level. AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from common web exploits.

 AWS Direct Connect gives users the ability to provision a dedicated and private network connection from their internal network to AWS. AWS Direct Connect links the user’s internal network to an AWS Direct Connect location over a standard Ethernet fiber-optic cable. One end of the cable is connected to the user’s router, the other to an AWS Direct Connect router. With this connection in place, the user can create virtual interfaces directly to the AWS cloud and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), bypassing internet service providers in the network path2.

Testing recovery procedures is the design principle that is achieved by following the reliability pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The reliability pillar focuses on the ability of a system to recover from failures and prevent disruptions. Testing recovery procedures helps to ensure that the system can handle different failure scenarios and restore normal operations as quickly as possible. Testing recovery procedures also helps to identify and mitigate any risks or gaps in the system design and implementation. For more information, see [Reliability Pillar] and [Testing for Reliability].

AWS CloudTrail is an AWS service that enables users to accomplish the task of recording API calls made to AWS services. AWS CloudTrail is a service that tracks user activity and API usage across the AWS account. AWS CloudTrail records the details of every API call made to AWS services, such as the identity of the caller, the time of the call, the source IP address of the caller, the parameters and responses of the call, and more. Users can use AWS CloudTrail to audit, monitor, and troubleshoot their AWS resources and actions. The other options are incorrect because they are not tasks that users can accomplish using AWS CloudTrail. Generating an IAM user credentials report is a task that users can accomplish using IAM, which is an AWS service that enables users to manage access and permissions to AWS resources and services. Assessing the compliance of AWS resource configurations with policies and guidelines is a task that users can accomplish using AWS Config, which is an AWS service that enables users to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of their AWS resources. Ensuring that Amazon EC2 instances are patched with the latest security updates is a task that users can accomplish using AWS Systems Manager, which is an AWS service that enables users to automate operational tasks, manage configuration and compliance, and monitor system health and performance. Reference: AWS CloudTrail FAQs

 The correct answer is D because AWS Security Hub is a service that aggregates, organizes, and prioritizes security alerts and findings from multiple AWS services, such as Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, Amazon Macie, AWS Firewall Manager, and AWS IAM Access Analyzer. The other options are incorrect because they are not services that aggregate security alerts and findings from multiple AWS services. Amazon Detective is a service that helps users analyze and visualize security data to investigate and remediate potential issues. Amazon Inspector is a service that helps users find security vulnerabilities and deviations from best practices in their Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon Macie is a service that helps users discover, classify, and protect sensitive data stored in Amazon S3. Reference: AWS Security Hub FAQs

AWS WAF is the AWS service that the company should use to configure rules to identify threats and protect applications from malicious network access. AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps to filter, monitor, and block malicious web requests based on customizable rules. AWS WAF can be integrated with other AWS services, such as Amazon CloudFront, Amazon API Gateway, and Application Load Balancer. For more information, see What is AWS WAF? and How AWS WAF Works.

 The correct answer is B because AWS Cloud9 is an AWS service that enables users to run their existing custom, nonproduction workloads in the AWS Cloud quickly and cost-effectively. AWS Cloud9 is a cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE) that allows users to write, run, and debug code from a web browser. AWS Cloud9 supports multiple programming languages, such as Python, Java, Node.js, and more. AWS Cloud9 also provides users with a terminal that can access AWS services and resources, such as Amazon EC2 instances, AWS Lambda functions, and AWS CloudFormation stacks. The other options are incorrect because they are not AWS services that enable users to run their existing custom, nonproduction workloads in the AWS Cloud quickly and cost-effectively. AWS CodeBuild is an AWS service that enables users to compile, test, and package their code for deployment. AWS OpsWorks is an AWS service that enables users to configure and manage their applications using Chef or Puppet. AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an AWS service that enables users to define and provision their cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages, such as TypeScript, Python, Java, and C#. Reference: AWS Cloud9 FAQs

AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open source software development framework that allows you to model and provision your cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages such as TypeScript, Python, Java, and .NET. AWS CDK enables you to use the expressive power of your favorite language to define your cloud resources, such as compute, storage, network, and application services. AWS CDK also provides a library of high-level constructs that represent AWS services and best practices. AWS CDK uses AWS CloudFormation in the background to deploy your resources in a safe and repeatable manner12. References:

• AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) – TypeScript and Python are Now Generally Available
• AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) - Introduction to DevOps on AWS

The AWS account root user is the identity that has complete access to all AWS services and resources in the account. It is accessed by signing in with the email address and password that were used to create the account1. The root user should be protected and used only for a few account and service management tasks that require it1. Therefore, the following actions are best practices for an AWS account root user:

• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on the root user. MFA is a security feature that requires users to provide two or more pieces of information to authenticate themselves, such as a password and a code from a device. MFA adds an extra layer of protection for the root user credentials, which can access sensitive information and perform critical operations in the account2.
• Create an IAM user with administrator privileges for daily administrative tasks, instead of using the root user. IAM is a service that helps customers manage access to AWS resources for users and groups. Customers can create IAM users and assign them permissions to perform specific tasks on specific resources. Customers can also create IAM roles and policies to delegate access to other AWS services or external entities3. By creating an IAM user with administrator privileges, customers can avoid using the root user for everyday tasks and reduce the risk of accidental or malicious changes to the account1.

The option that is a customer responsibility under the AWS shared responsibility model is B. Application data security.

According to the AWS shared responsibility model, AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, while the customer is responsible for the security in the cloud. This means that AWS manages the security of the underlying infrastructure, such as the hardware, software, networking, and facilities that run the AWS services, while the customer manages the security of their applications, data, and resources that they use on top of AWS12.

Application data security is one of the customer responsibilities under the AWS shared responsibility model. This means that the customer is responsible for protecting their application data from unauthorized access, modification, deletion, or leakage. The customer can use various AWS services and features to help with application data security, such as encryption, key management, access control, logging, and auditing12.

Maintenance of underlying hardware of Amazon EC2 instances is not a customer responsibility under the AWS shared responsibility model. This is part of the AWS responsibility to secure the cloud. AWS manages the physical servers that host the Amazon EC2 instances and ensures that they are updated, patched, and replaced as needed13.

Physical security of data centers is not a customer responsibility under the AWS shared responsibility model. This is also part of the AWS responsibility to secure the cloud. AWS operates and controls the facilities where the AWS services are hosted and ensures that they are protected from unauthorized access, environmental hazards, fire, and theft14.

Maintenance of VPC components is not a customer responsibility under the AWS shared responsibility model. This is a shared responsibility between AWS and the customer. AWS provides the VPC service and ensures that it is secure and reliable, while the customer configures and manages their own VPCs and related components, such as subnets, route tables, security groups, network ACLs, gateways, and endpoints15.

References:

1: Shared Responsibility Model - Amazon Web Services (AWS) 2: AWS Cloud Computing - W3Schools 3: [Amazon EC2 FAQs - Amazon Web Services] 4: [AWS Security - Amazon Web Services] 5: [Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) - Amazon Web Services]

 AWS Budgets allows you to set custom budgets that alert you when your costs or usage exceed (or are forecasted to exceed) your budgeted amount. You can also use AWS Budgets to set reservation utilization or coverage targets and receive alerts when your utilization drops below the threshold you define. AWS Budgets provides you with a comprehensive view of your cost and usage, as well as your reservation utilization and coverage1.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is an AWS service that can help users reduce the number of Amazon EC2 instances that run when application usage is low. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling allows users to create scaling policies that automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances based on the demand or a schedule. EC2 Instance Savings Plans, Spot Instances, and Reserved Instances are instance purchasing options that can help users save money on EC2 usage, but they do not automatically scale the number of instances according to the application usage .

 Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is a storage class within Amazon S3 that provides the lowest-cost, long-term data storage for data that is rarely accessed. AWS Snowball is a service that provides a physical device for transferring large amounts of data into and out of AWS. Amazon MQ is a service that provides managed message broker service for Apache ActiveMQ. AWS Storage Gateway is a service that provides hybrid cloud storage for on-premises applications.

AWS Organizations is a service that helps you centrally manage and govern your AWS environment. You can use AWS Organizations to create multiple accounts for different business units, and group them into organizational units (OUs) that reflect your organizational structure1. By doing so, you can separate and track costs for each business unit using the account ID as a cost allocation tag2. You can also use AWS Organizations to apply policies and controls to your accounts, such as service control policies (SCPs) and tag policies1.

The other options are not suitable for meeting the requirements with the least operational overhead. Using a spreadsheet or a DynamoDB table to control and record costs for each business unit would require manual data entry and maintenance, which is prone to errors and inconsistencies. Using the AWS Billing console to assign owners to resources and track costs would also require manual tagging of each resource, which is time-consuming and inefficient.

References:

• 1: What Is AWS Organizations? - AWS Organizations
• 2: Cost Tagging and Reporting with AWS Organizations | AWS Cloud Financial Management

The AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) cloud transformation journey is a four-phase process that helps customers plan and execute their cloud migration and digital transformation. The four phases are:

• Envision phase: This phase focuses on demonstrating how cloud will help accelerate the business outcomes of the customer. It involves identifying and prioritizing transformation opportunities across four domains: business, people, governance, and platform. It also involves associating the transformation initiatives with key stakeholders and measurable business outcomes1.
• Align phase: This phase focuses on identifying capability gaps across six perspectives: business, people, governance, platform, security, and operations. It also involves identifying cross-organizational dependencies and surfacing stakeholder concerns and challenges. The goal of this phase is to create strategies for improving the cloud readiness, ensure stakeholder alignment, and facilitate relevant organizational change management activities1.
• Launch phase: This phase focuses on delivering pilot initiatives in production and demonstrating incremental business value. Pilots should be highly impactful and influence future direction. The customer should learn from the pilots and adjust their approach before scaling to full production1.
• Scale phase: This phase focuses on expanding production pilots and business value to the desired scale and ensuring that the business benefits associated with the cloud investments are realized and sustained1.

The AWS Enterprise Support Concierge team is a group of billing and account experts who specialize in working with enterprise customers. They can help customers with questions about billing, account management, cost optimization, and other non-technical issues. They can also assist customers with navigating and optimizing their AWS environment, such as setting up consolidated billing, applying for service limit increases, or requesting refunds.

References:

• AWS Support Plan Comparison
• AWS Enterprise Support Plan
• Answer Explained: Which AWS Support plan provides access to AWS Concierge Support team for account assistance?

The concept of granting access only to the resources needed to perform a task is known as least privilege access. This is a security best practice in IAM that helps to reduce the risk of unauthorized or malicious actions. By applying least privilege access, you can limit the permissions of your IAM users, groups, and roles to the minimum required for their specific tasks. You can also use conditions, permissions boundaries, and IAM Access Analyzer to further restrict and verify access. References: Security best practices in IAM, Policies and permissions in IAM, Use IAM policies to grant the least privileges required to access Amazon RDS resources, How to Design a Least Privilege Architecture in AWS, 12 Azure & AWS IAM Security Best Practices

Amazon EC2 usage is calculated by either the hour or the second based on the size of the instance, operating system, and the AWS Region where the instances are launched. Pricing is per instance-hour consumed for each instance, from the time an instance is launched until it’s terminated or stopped. Each partial instance-hour consumed is billed per-second for Linux instances and as a full hour for all other instance types1. Therefore, the customer will be billed for 3 hours and 6 minutes for running an On-Demand Amazon Linux EC2 instance for 3 hours, 5 minutes, and 6 seconds. References: Understand Amazon EC2 instance-hours billing

 Using AWS Artifact to access AWS documents about the compliance of the services, and getting the compliance of the application certified by a company assessor are actions that the company should take to meet the requirements of complying with credit card regulatory requirements. AWS Artifact is a service that provides on-demand access to AWS security and compliance reports and select online agreements. Reports available in AWS Artifact include our Service Organization Control (SOC) reports, Payment Card Industry (PCI) reports, and certifications from accreditation bodies across geographies and compliance verticals that validate the implementation and operating effectiveness of AWS security controls. AWS Artifact can help you demonstrate compliance with credit card regulatory requirements by providing you with proof that the AWS services and deployment are in compliance. Getting the compliance of the application certified by a company assessor is an action that the company should take to ensure that the application meets the specific requirements of the credit card industry. A company assessor is an independent third-party entity that is qualified to assess the compliance of the application with the relevant standards and regulations. Using Amazon Inspector to submit the application for certification is not an action that the company should take, because Amazon Inspector is a service that helps you improve the security and compliance of your applications deployed on AWS by automatically assessing them for vulnerabilities and deviations from best practices, but it does not provide certification for the applications. Ensuring that the application’s underlying hardware components comply with requirements is not an action that the company should take, because the application is deployed on AWS, and AWS is responsible for the security and compliance of the underlying hardware components. This is part of the shared responsibility model, where AWS is responsible for security of the cloud, and customers are responsible for security in the cloud. Using AWS Security Hub to certify the compliance of the application is not an action that the company should take, because AWS Security Hub is a service that gives you a comprehensive view of your security posture across your AWS accounts and helps you check your environment against security industry standards and best practices, but it does not provide certification for the applications.

Agility is the AWS Cloud benefit that gives a company the ability to quickly deploy cloud resources to access compute, storage, and database infrastructures in a matter of minutes. Agility means that you can reduce the time to make IT resources available to your developers from weeks to just minutes, resulting in a dramatic increase in innovation and responsiveness1. AWS provides a range of services and tools that enable you to launch, scale, and manage your cloud applications with ease and speed, such as AWS CloudFormation, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS CodeDeploy, and AWS Quick Starts2345. References:

• Six advantages of cloud computing - Overview of Amazon Web Services
• [AWS CloudFormation]
• [AWS Elastic Beanstalk]
• [AWS CodeDeploy]
• AWS Quick Starts

The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a set of six pillars and lenses that help cloud architects design and run workloads in the cloud. The six pillars are: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and sustainability. Each pillar has a set of design principles and best practices that guide the architectural decisions. High availability is not a separate pillar, but a quality that can be achieved by applying the principles of the reliability pillar. Going global in minutes and continuous development are not pillars of the framework, but possible benefits of using AWS services and following the framework’s recommendations. References: AWS Well-Architected - Build secure, efficient cloud applications, AWS Well-Architected Framework, The 6 Pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework

The AWS service that the company should use to meet these requirements is A. AWS Snowmobile.

AWS Snowmobile is a service that allows you to migrate large amounts of data to AWS using a 45-foot long ruggedized shipping container that can store up to 100 petabytes of data. AWS Snowmobile is designed for situations where you need to move massive amounts of data to the cloud in a fast, secure, and cost-effective way. AWS Snowmobile has the least possible operational overhead because it eliminates the need to buy, configure, or manage hundreds or thousands of storage devices12.

AWS Snowball Edge is a service that allows you to migrate data to AWS using a physical device that can store up to 80 terabytes of data and has compute and storage capabilities to run applications on the device. AWS Snowball Edge is suitable for situations where you have limited or intermittent network connectivity, or where bandwidth costs are high. However, AWS Snowball Edge has more operational overhead than AWS Snowmobile because you need to request multiple devices and transfer your data onto them using the client3.

AWS Data Exchange is a service that allows you to find, subscribe to, and use third-party data in the cloud. AWS Data Exchange is not a data migration service, but rather a data marketplace that enables data providers and data consumers to exchange data sets securely and efficiently4.

AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) is a service that helps migrate databases to AWS. AWS DMS does not migrate file storage data, but rather supports various database platforms and engines as sources and targets5.

References:

1: AWS Snowmobile – Move Exabytes of Data to the Cloud in Weeks 2: AWS Snowmobile - Amazon Web Services 3: Automated Software Vulnerability Management - Amazon Inspector - AWS 4: AWS Data Exchange - Find, subscribe to, and use third-party data in … 5: AWS Database Migration Service – Amazon Web Services

 These are two scenarios that represent the concept of elasticity on AWS. Elasticity means the ability to adjust the resources and capacity of the system in response to changes in demand or environment. Scaling the number of Amazon EC2 instances based on traffic means using services such as AWS Auto Scaling or Elastic Load Balancing to add or remove instances as the traffic increases or decreases. Resizing Amazon RDS instances as business needs change means using the Amazon RDS console or API to modify the instance type, storage type, or storage size of the database as the workload grows or shrinks. You can learn more about the concept of elasticity on AWS from [this webpage] or [this digital course].

An access key is a pair of long-term credentials that consists of an access key ID and a secret access key. An access key is used to sign programmatic requests to the AWS CLI or AWS API (directly or using the AWS SDK). An access key allows a user to access the AWS account through a CLI, which is a tool that enables users to interact with AWS services using commands in a terminal or a script12.

The other options are not correct, because:

• To access the AWS account as the AWS account root user, a user needs the email address and password associated with the account. The root user has complete access to all AWS resources and services in the account. However, it is not recommended to use the root user for everyday tasks3.
• To access the AWS account through the AWS Management Console, a user needs a user name and password. The console is a web-based interface that allows users to manage their AWS resources and services using a graphical user interface4.
• To access all of a company’s AWS accounts, a user needs to use AWS Organizations, which is a service that enables users to centrally manage and govern multiple AWS accounts. AWS Organizations allows users to create groups of accounts and apply policies to them5.

References:

• Managing access keys for IAM users - AWS Identity and Access Management
• What Is the AWS Command Line Interface? - AWS Command Line Interface
• AWS account root user - AWS Identity and Access Management
• What Is the AWS Management Console? - AWS Management Console
• What Is AWS Organizations? - AWS Organizations

 AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. AWS Config continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations and allows you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations. AWS Config can also track changes to your EC2 instances over time and provide a history report of the modifications. AWS Service Catalog, Amazon CloudWatch, and AWS Artifact are not the best services to meet this requirement. AWS Service Catalog is a service that allows you to create and manage catalogs of IT services that are approved for use on AWS. Amazon CloudWatch is a service that monitors your AWS resources and applications and provides metrics, alarms, dashboards, and logs. AWS Artifact is a service that provides on-demand access to AWS security and compliance reports and online agreements

S3 Versioning is a feature that allows you to keep multiple versions of an object in the same bucket. You can use S3 Versioning to protect your data from accidental deletion or overwriting by enabling it on a bucket or a specific object. S3 Versioning also allows you to restore previous versions of an object if needed. S3 Lifecycle rules are used to automate the transition of objects between storage classes or to expire objects after a certain period of time. S3 bucket policies are used to control access to the objects in a bucket. S3 server-side encryption is used to encrypt the data at rest in S3. References: S3 Versioning, S3 Lifecycle rules, S3 bucket policies, S3 server-side encryption

• Understanding EC2 Image Builder: EC2 Image Builder is a fully managed service that simplifies the creation, maintenance, validation, and testing of Amazon Machine Images (AMIs).
• Why Use EC2 Image Builder:
• How to Implement EC2 Image Builder:

References:

• EC2 Image Builder

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed, serverless, key-value NoSQL database service that can deliver consistent, single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. DynamoDB can automatically scale throughput capacity to meet the demands of the database workload, without requiring any manual intervention. DynamoDB is ideal for NoSQL applications that need high performance, availability, and scalability. DynamoDB also offers features such as encryption at rest, point-in-time recovery, global tables, and in-memory caching. References: What is NoSQL?, Amazon DynamoDB, [AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials: Module 4 - Databases in the Cloud]

The AWS service that provides the ability to manage infrastructure as code is AWS CloudFormation. Infrastructure as code is a process of defining and provisioning AWS resources using code or templates, rather than manual actions or scripts. AWS CloudFormation allows you to create and update stacks of AWS resources based on predefined templates that describe the desired state and configuration of the resources. AWS CloudFormation automates and simplifies the deployment and management of AWS resources, and ensures consistency and repeatability across different environments and regions. AWS CloudFormation also supports rollback, change sets, drift detection, and nested stacks features that help you to monitor and control the changes to your infrastructure1.

The correct answer is D. Platform.

The Platform perspective in the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) includes a capability for well-designed data and analytics architecture. This capability helps you design, implement, and optimize your data and analytics solutions on AWS, using services such as Amazon S3, Amazon Redshift, Amazon EMR, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon Athena, and Amazon QuickSight. A well-designed data and analytics architecture enables you to collect, store, process, analyze, and visualize data from various sources, and derive insights that can drive your business decisions12.

The Security perspective does not include a capability for data and analytics architecture, but it does include a capability for data protection, which helps you secure your data at rest and in transit using encryption, key management, access control, and auditing13.

The Governance perspective does not include a capability for data and analytics architecture, but it does include a capability for data governance, which helps you manage the quality, availability, usability, integrity, and security of your data assets14.

The Operations perspective does not include a capability for data and analytics architecture, but it does include a capability for data operations, which helps you monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize the performance and availability of your data pipelines and workloads1 .

References:

1: Foundational capabilities - An Overview of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework 2: [AWS Cloud Adoption Framework: Platform Perspective] 3: [AWS Cloud Adoption Framework: Security Perspective] 4: [AWS Cloud Adoption Framework: Governance Perspective] : [AWS Cloud Adoption Framework: Operations Perspective]

AWS IAM Identity Center (AWS Single Sign-On) is a cloud-based service that makes it easy to centrally manage single sign-on (SSO) access to multiple AWS accounts and business applications. You can use AWS SSO to enable your users to sign in to the AWS Management Console or the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) with their existing corporate credentials2. You can also manage SSO access and user permissions across all your AWS accounts in AWS Organizations3. References: AWS Single Sign-On - AWS Documentation, AWS Organizations - AWS Documentation

AWS Secrets Manager is a service that helps you protect access to your applications, services, and IT resources. This service enables you to easily rotate, manage, and retrieve database credentials, API keys, and other secrets throughout their lifecycle. Users and applications retrieve secrets with a call to Secrets Manager APIs, eliminating the need to hardcode sensitive information in plain text. Secrets Manager offers secret rotation with built-in integration for Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, Amazon DocumentDB, and other AWS services1. You can also extend Secrets Manager to rotate other types of secrets, such as credentials for Oracle, SQL Server, or MongoDB databases, by using custom AWS Lambda functions2. Secrets Manager enables you to control access to secrets using fine-grained permissions and audit secret rotation centrally for resources in the AWS Cloud, third-party services, and on-premises3. Therefore, AWS Secrets Manager supports the requirement of rotating database user credentials with the least amount of operational overhead, compared to the other options. References:

• What Is AWS Secrets Manager? - AWS Secrets Manager
• Rotating Your AWS Secrets Manager Secrets - AWS Secrets Manager
• AWS Secrets Manager Features - AWS Secrets Manager

 The AWS Well-Architected Framework is a set of best practices and guidelines for designing and operating reliable, secure, efficient, and cost-effective systems in the cloud. The framework consists of five pillars: operational excellence, performance efficiency, reliability, security, and cost optimization. The security pillar covers the AWS shared responsibility model, which defines the security and compliance responsibilities of AWS and the customers. You can learn more about the AWS Well-Architected Framework from [this whitepaper] or [this digital course].

AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers that works with both Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS). AWS Fargate allows you to run containers without having to manage servers or clusters of Amazon EC2 instances. With AWS Fargate, you only pay for the compute resources you use to run your containers, and you don’t need to worry about scaling, patching, securing, or maintaining the underlying infrastructure. AWS Fargate simplifies the deployment and management of containerized applications, and enables you to focus on building and running your applications instead of managing the infrastructure. References: AWS Fargate, What is AWS Fargate?

AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid cloud storage service that provides on-premises access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. You can use AWS Storage Gateway to simplify storage management and reduce costs for key hybrid cloud storage use cases. One of these use cases is tape-based backup, which allows you to store data backups on virtual tapes in the AWS Cloud. You can use the Tape Gateway feature of AWS Storage Gateway to extend your existing physical tape library to the AWS Cloud. Tape Gateway provides a virtual tape infrastructure that scales seamlessly with your backup needs and eliminates the operational burden of provisioning, scaling, and maintaining a physical tape infrastructure123. References: 1: Cloud Storage Appliances, Hybrid Device - AWS Storage Gateway - AWS, 2: AWS Storage Gateway Documentation, 3: AWS Storage Gateway Features | Amazon Web Services

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) provides a simple, scalable, fully managed elastic NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. It is built to scale on demand to petabytes without disrupting applications, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, eliminating the need to provision and manage capacity to accommodate growth. Amazon EFS offers two storage classes: the Standard storage class, and the Infrequent Access storage class (EFS IA). EFS IA provides price/performance that is cost-optimized for files not accessed every day. Amazon EFS encrypts data at rest and in transit, and supports direct access over the internet4.

AWS Glue is a serverless data integration service that makes it easy to discover, prepare, move, and integrate data from multiple sources for analytics, machine learning, and application development. You can use various data integration engines, such as ETL, ELT, batch, and streaming, and manage your data in a centralized data catalog. AWS Glue is designed specifically for extract, transform, and load (ETL) data, whereas the other options are not.

AWS Glue is a fully managed extract, transform, and load (ETL) service that makes it easy to prepare and load data for analytics. AWS Glue can discover data sources, transform data, and make it available for analysis by using data catalogs and workflows. Amazon Redshift is a fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service in the cloud that enables customers to analyze data using standard SQL and existing business intelligence tools. Amazon Redshift can also integrate with other AWS services to visualize and transform data. Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) provides a simple, scalable, fully managed elastic NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. Amazon QuickSight is a fast, cloud-powered business intelligence service that makes it easy to deliver insights to everyone in an organization. Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) is a fully managed ledger database that provides a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable transaction log owned by a central trusted authority.

AWS Trusted Advisor is a service that provides real-time guidance to help optimize AWS resources, improve security, and maximize performance. It includes a Security category that can identify security group configurations that allow unrestricted access to specific ports. It offers recommendations and alerts to help remediate misconfigurations and ensure proper security practices1. References:

• Amazon CLF-C02: Which AWS service monitor for misconfigured security groups allowing unrestricted access to specific ports - PUPUWEB

 IAM roles are a secure way to grant permissions to applications running on an Amazon EC2 instance to make calls to other AWS services. IAM roles are entities that have specific permissions policies attached to them. You can create an IAM role and associate it with an EC2 instance when you launch it or later. The applications on the instance can then use the temporary credentials provided by the role to access AWS resources that the role allows. This way, you do not have to store any long-term credentials or access keys on the instance, which reduces the risk of compromise or misuse12.

The other options are not correct, because:

• Security groups are virtual firewalls that control the inbound and outbound traffic for your EC2 instances. Security groups do not grant permissions to access other AWS services, but rather filter the network traffic based on rules that you define3.
• AWS Firewall Manager is a service that helps you centrally configure and manage firewall rules across your accounts and resources. AWS Firewall Manager works with AWS WAF, AWS Shield Advanced, and Amazon VPC security groups. AWS Firewall Manager does not grant permissions to access other AWS services, but rather helps you enforce consistent security policies across your AWS infrastructure4.
• IAM user SSH keys are credentials that allow you to connect to your EC2 instance using SSH. SSH keys do not grant permissions to access other AWS services, but rather authenticate your identity when you log in to your instance5.

References:

• Using an IAM role to grant permissions to applications running on Amazon EC2 instances - AWS Identity and Access Management
• IAM roles for Amazon EC2 - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
• Security groups for your VPC - Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
• What is AWS Firewall Manager? - AWS Firewall Manager
• Connecting to your Linux instance using SSH - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

AWS Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of platform-specific building tools for developers. It allows developers to access AWS services from application code using familiar programming languages. It provides pre-built components and libraries that can be incorporated into applications, as well as tools to debug, monitor, and optimize performance2. References: What is SDK? - SDK Explained - AWS

Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) is a service that provides fully managed pub/sub messaging. Pub/sub messaging is a pattern that uses a combination of publishers and subscribers. Publishers are entities that produce messages and send them to topics. Subscribers are entities that receive messages from topics. Topics are logical access points that act as communication channels between publishers and subscribers. Amazon SNS enables applications to decouple, scale, and coordinate the delivery of messages to multiple endpoints, such as email, SMS, mobile push notifications, Lambda functions, SQS queues, and HTTP/S endpoints. Amazon SNS OverviewAWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - aws.amazon.com

AWS Artifact is the service that will provide the information about whether a specific AWS service is compliant with specific compliance frameworks. AWS Artifact is a self-service portal that allows you to access, review, and download AWS security and compliance reports and agreements. You can use AWS Artifact to verify the compliance status of AWS services across various regions and compliance programs, such as ISO, PCI, SOC, FedRAMP, HIPAA, and more12