A company must move 80 TB of on-premises data to S3 as a one-time migration. Only a shared 1 Gbps internet connection is available and production traffic runs over it. Which migration option is most efficient?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
A Snowball Edge Storage Optimized device holds roughly 210 TB usable, more than the 80 TB transfer, and the data is copied at local disk speed into the device before it ships, so the migration consumes essentially none of the shared 1 Gbps link. That structure sidesteps both constraints at once, production contention and a weeks-long wire transfer.
Cloud-initiated upload completes inside AWS on a dedicated import pipeline, and the device is returned for the fee-based NDA-driven use.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. DataSync optimizes and manages the copy but still carries every byte across the shared 1 Gbps link, meaning the weeks-long transfer and contention problem remain no matter the throttling.
- C. Transfer Acceleration is faster only for geographically distant uploads against unstable links; it is still internet bandwidth and still competes with production traffic on the same wire.
- D. Provisioning an extra internet connection typically takes weeks and continues to occupy it for the transfer duration, so the timeline and infrastructure spend are worse than shipping a device.
Exam tip. Rule of thumb: if a wire transfer would take a week or more, ship a Snowball. One Storage Optimized device holds up to about 210 TB usable.