AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Practice Exam

Which service allows for seamless transition from unencrypted to encrypted storage without disrupting operations?

1. Amazon RDS

2. AWS Storage Gateway

3. AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS)

4. Amazon S3

The correct answer is: Amazon S3

The service that allows for a seamless transition from unencrypted to encrypted storage without disrupting operations is Amazon S3. When you have existing data in an S3 bucket, you can enable server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed keys (SSE-S3) or other encryption methods like AWS Key Management Service (SSE-KMS) on the bucket level. This process can happen in the background without requiring you to pause your operations or disrupt access to the data. S3’s architecture is designed for high durability and availability, and it supports various encryption options. As data is accessed or served, S3 automatically encrypts and decrypts the objects behind the scenes, making it an efficient choice for maintaining operational continuity during the transition to encrypted storage. Other services mentioned, like Amazon RDS, AWS Storage Gateway, and AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS), have their own methods and mechanisms for encryption, but they may require additional steps or downtime during the encryption process, especially when it comes to existing data that needs to be transitioned from unencrypted to encrypted states, such as snapshotting or backing up and restoring data. This makes Amazon S3 the most seamless option for encrypting and accessing data without ongoing operational disruption.