AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Practice Exam

What could be a potential consequence of not tracking S3 costs effectively?

1. Poor performance of S3 services

2. Unexpected high charges leading to budget overruns

3. S3 buckets becoming inaccessible

4. Increased security vulnerabilities

The correct answer is: Unexpected high charges leading to budget overruns

Not effectively tracking S3 costs can lead to unexpected high charges that could result in significant budget overruns. This situation arises because Amazon S3 pricing is based on a variety of factors, including storage used, requests made, data retrieval, and data transfer out to the internet. If these costs are not monitored regularly, it can be easy to overlook increasing expenses that accumulate over time, especially as usage grows or if a particular workflow suddenly starts using more resources than anticipated. By not maintaining a close watch on S3 costs, an organization might employ more resources, resulting in charges that exceed the established budget. This can strain financial planning and impact other areas of the business. Tools such as AWS Budgets can assist in monitoring and alerting based on spending thresholds, allowing businesses to manage their cloud costs effectively.