Cost-Effective Storage Options for Amazon EFS | Best Storage Class for Rarely Accessed Files

Best Storage Class for Rarely Accessed Files

Question

A digital enterprise is looking for storage options with Amazon EFS for its new gaming application.

Files stored will be rarely accessed after upload but should always be readily available.

They are looking for the most cost-effective storage options to store these data. Which storage class is best suited to meet this requirement?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

Correct Answer: A.

Amazon EFS Standard-IA storage class can be used to store data that is infrequently accessed but requires high availability and durability.

With Amazon EFS Standard-IA storage class, data is stored redundantly across multiple AZ.

Option B is incorrect.

Since files will be accessed infrequently, Amazon EFS Standard-IA is more cost-effective than Amazon EFS Standard storage class.

Option C is incorrect as with Amazon EFS One Zone, there is a risk of data loss when the AZ is unavailable.

Option D is incorrect as with Amazon EFS One Zone-IA, there is a risk of data loss when One AZ is unavailable.

For more information on storage classes with Amazon EFS, refer to the following URL,

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/efs/latest/ug/storage-classes.html

The storage class that is best suited to meet the given requirements is Amazon EFS Standard.

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is a scalable, fully managed, cloud-native NFS file system. EFS offers four storage classes, which differ in their durability, availability, and cost.

Amazon EFS Standard is the default storage class and is best suited for general-purpose file storage. It offers high durability and availability, low latency, and performance for a broad range of workloads. The Standard storage class also provides high throughput and IOPS, making it well-suited for applications that require fast access to data.

Amazon EFS Standard-I is designed for workloads with a higher intensity of operations per second (IOPS) and lower file systems storage, such as container-based workloads, big data applications, and content management systems.

Amazon EFS One Zone offers the same performance and throughput characteristics as Standard but is designed for workloads that can tolerate the loss of data in a single Availability Zone (AZ) in a region. It is a cost-effective storage class that stores data in a single AZ, providing lower latency and higher throughput compared to multi-AZ deployments. However, if the AZ experiences a disruption, data stored in that AZ may be lost.

Amazon EFS One Zone-IA is a lower cost storage class than Standard, designed for infrequently accessed workloads that can tolerate the loss of data in a single Availability Zone. It offers the same throughput and performance characteristics as Standard but with a lower storage cost. However, data retrieval may take longer than with Standard, as it requires a restore process.

Given the requirements of the digital enterprise's new gaming application, where files stored will be rarely accessed after upload but should always be readily available, the Amazon EFS Standard storage class is the most cost-effective option. This option offers high durability and availability, low latency, high throughput, and IOPS, making it well-suited for a broad range of workloads, including the gaming application. Additionally, the files will always be readily available, which meets the requirements stated.