Cost-Optimized Static Website Hosting with S3 and CloudFront

SAA-C03 By islever Editorial Last updated

Design cost-optimized storage solutions.

Short answer

A Move the website to an Amazon S3 bucket. Configure an Amazon CloudFront distribution for the S3 bucket.

Question

A company hosts a website on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The website serves static content. Website traffic is increasing. The company wants to minimize the website hosting costs. Which solution will meet these requirements?
  1. Move the website to an Amazon S3 bucket. Configure an Amazon CloudFront distribution for the S3 bucket. Correct Answer
  2. Move the website to an Amazon S3 bucket. Configure an Amazon ElastiCache cluster for the S3 bucket.
  3. Move the website to AWS Amplify. Configure an ALB to resolve to the Amplify website.
  4. Move the website to AWS Amplify. Configure EC2 instances to cache the website.

Key Takeaways

This question tests the cost-effective delivery of static assets; the common trap is over-engineering with ElastiCache or Amplify when S3 + CloudFront is the standard low-cost pattern.

Host static website content on Amazon S3 and use Amazon CloudFront to minimize costs while handling increasing traffic, avoiding expensive compute or caching layers.

Common mistake: Many learners choose ElastiCache (B) believing it handles traffic spikes, but ElastiCache is for dynamic application caching, not static file hosting, and adds significant cost and complexity.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Moving static content to Amazon S3 provides durable, low-cost storage, while Amazon CloudFront serves as a global Content Delivery Network (CDN). CloudFront caches content at edge locations, reducing latency for users and minimizing data transfer costs compared to serving directly from EC2 or S3 origin without caching. This combination is the industry standard for cost-optimized static website hosting.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Option B suggests using ElastiCache, which is an in-memory caching service designed for dynamic databases or applications, not for hosting static files. It incurs hourly instance costs and adds unnecessary complexity. Option C and D involve AWS Amplify, which is a developer platform for full-stack apps, not a simple static host, and adding ALBs or EC2 instances contradicts the goal of minimizing costs.

Community Comment Notes

The community overwhelmingly supports A, noting that "CloudFront helps reduce costs" by leveraging its CDN capabilities. Users correctly point out that ElastiCache is inappropriate for static content, as one commenter noted, "ElastiCache is for DB, not for S3." Another user emphasized that "S3 and CloudFront is straightforward and simple," aligning with the exam's focus on best practices.

Official Reference

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/getting-started-secure-static-website-cloudformation-template.html

This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

Always look for keywords like 'static content' and 'minimize costs.' The default architectural choice for this scenario is S3 for storage and CloudFront for distribution/delivery. Avoid solutions involving compute (EC2) or complex caching layers (ElastiCache) unless explicitly required for dynamic behavior.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why not use ElastiCache for static content?

ElastiCache is for caching dynamic data, not hosting files. It adds cost and complexity without providing the global CDN benefits of CloudFront.

Does CloudFront reduce S3 costs?

Yes, CloudFront reduces data transfer costs and origin requests by caching content at edge locations, lowering the load on your S3 bucket.

More SAA-C03 FAQ →

Community Votes

A
80%
B
20%

80% of anonymous learners picked answer A. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 10 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 10

  1. Scheldon 👍 9 Answered A
    Answer A Based on https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/getting-started-secure-static-website-cloudformation-template.html Amazon CloudFront: Uses the durable storage of Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) – This solution creates an Amazon S3 bucket to host your static website’s content. To update your website, just upload your new files to the S3 bucket.
  2. FrozenCarrot 👍 3 Answered B
    S3 for static contents, and ElastiCache for traffic increasing. No need for cloudfront cuz there is no need for global deliver for the website
  3. muhammadahmer36 👍 3 Answered A
    A. Move the website to an Amazon S3 bucket. Configure an Amazon CloudFront distribution for the S3 bucket.
  4. j21kjf0o9ijhj 👍 2 Answered A
    Why??? Guys, you'll fail the others. Don't troll or believe everything chatgpt says... 😕 The question indicates "The website serves static content", why would you use elasticache for it? It may work, but it'll take a helluva effort. S3 and CloudFront is straightforward and simple. Not only that, it also works great for static content. It's AWS's cdn. It can also serve dynamic content, but that's out of scope for this question. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/getting-started-secure-static-website-cloudformation-template.html
  5. Dantecito 👍 1 Answered A
    I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but cloudfront helps reduce costs. If you want to use ElastiCache, it is possible but incredibly difficult, the question asks to reduce costs and cloudfront is cheaper than ElastiCache.
Show 5 more comments
  1. Abdullah2004 👍 1 Answered B
    website serves static content So we need to ElastiCache when traffic increases , no need for cloudfront
  2. mk168898 👍 1 Answered B
    S3 bucket is correct, so it's between A or B. B because cache to handle when traffic increase.
  3. Cpso 👍 1 Answered A
    A. but questions should specify it is static or dynamic website
  4. joanna91 👍 1 Answered A
    A vs B -> A. Because Elsticache is for DB, not for S3.
  5. trinh_le 👍 3 Answered A
    static content -> S3

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