The best solution is Store the video files in Amazon S3 and use Amazon EBS volumes attached to the EC2 instances for temporary processing. Amazon S3 provides highly durable and cost-effective object storage, making it ideal for storing large amounts of video content. EBS volumes can then be attached to EC2 instances to handle the transient compute-intensive processing. This decouples long-term storage from compute and significantly reduces cost compared to Amazon EFS Standard, especially when EFS is used at high throughput levels and with large files.

The option Keep using Amazon EFS for shared access and move completed files to Amazon EBS for long-term storage is inefficient because EBS is not designed for long-term object storage. Its block storage with higher costs than Amazon S3 and does not offer the same scalability or durability as an object store.

The choice Implement AWS Storage Gateway for volume-based storage to process and store all video content is inappropriate because AWS Storage Gateway is designed for hybrid cloud scenariosextending on-premises storage to AWSnot for cloud-native applications running entirely in the cloud.

The option Switch to AWS Storage Gateway for file-based storage and use it as a replacement for Amazon EFS is also incorrect. Like the volume gateway, the file gateway is intended to present an NFS-compatible interface for on-premises environments to access cloud storage, not to serve as a primary cloud-native storage backend for EC2 instances.

This question is valuable because it tests your ability to design cost-optimized storage architectures for media-heavy workloads. A useful trick for questions like this is to identify storage patternsS3 is excellent for low-cost, scalable object storage, while EBS is great for performance-sensitive, temporary processing. EFS is ideal for shared file systems, but its cost can scale quickly with large datasets and high throughput requirements.

The challenge lies in understanding when and how to blend different AWS storage solutions for cost and performance. In this case, moving to an S3 + EBS combination balances both needs while keeping expenses in check.

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