A SaaS company stores user-uploaded documents in Amazon S3. Some objects are downloaded many times in the first week, others are never touched again, and the access pattern for any given object is impossible to predict. The team wants to minimise storage cost without writing code to track access, and it cannot accept per-object retrieval fees or any change to how the application reads objects. Which storage approach meets these requirements?
- AKeep every object in S3 Standard and rely on volume discounts to reduce the monthly storage charge as the bucket grows over time.
- BPlace all objects in S3 Standard-Infrequent Access on upload, accepting the lower storage rate in exchange for the per-gigabyte retrieval charge on each read.
- CWrite a lifecycle rule that moves every object to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval seven days after upload to capture the lowest possible storage price.
- DStore all objects in S3 Intelligent-Tiering so the service automatically moves each object between access tiers based on its observed usage. Correct
Why A is wrong: Tempting because S3 Standard needs no changes and avoids retrieval fees, but it applies the full frequent-access price to cold objects, so it does not minimise cost for data that is rarely read.
Why B is wrong: Tempting because Standard-IA is cheaper to store, but objects read many times in the first week incur per-gigabyte retrieval fees, which the requirement explicitly forbids.
Why C is wrong: Tempting because Glacier storage is cheap, but objects still read after seven days would need a retrieval job and wait, breaking the no-retrieval-fee and no-application-change constraints.
Why D is correct: Intelligent-Tiering monitors each object and shifts it between frequent and infrequent tiers automatically with no retrieval fees and no application change, which fits an unpredictable per-object access pattern.