How can a developer implement the required time measurement and notification with the LEAST operational overhead?
Create an Amazon CloudWatch custom metric. Each time a photo is processed, publish the processing time as a metric value. Create a CloudWatch alarm that is based on a static threshold of 5 seconds. Notify the development team by using an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic.
Create an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) queue. Each time a photo is processed, publish the processing time to the queue. Create an application to consume from the queue and to determine whether any values are more than 5 seconds. Notify the development team by using an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic.
Create an Amazon CloudWatch custom metric. Each time a photo is processed, publish the processing time as a metric value. Create a CloudWatch alarm that enters ALARM state if the average of values is greater than 5 seconds. Notify the development team by sending an Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) message.
Create an Amazon Kinesis data stream. Each time a photo is processed, publish the processing time to the data stream. Create an Amazon CloudWatch alarm that enters ALARM state if any values are more than 5 seconds. Notify the development team by using an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic.
Explanations:
This option efficiently uses CloudWatch custom metrics to publish processing times for each photo. It allows for real-time monitoring and can trigger an alarm if any processing time exceeds 5 seconds. The integration with Amazon SNS for notifications ensures that the development team is alerted with minimal operational overhead, making it a straightforward and effective solution.
While this option utilizes SQS to monitor processing times, it adds unnecessary complexity. An application would need to be developed and managed to consume from the queue and check the processing times, which increases operational overhead compared to directly using CloudWatch metrics and alarms.
Although using CloudWatch custom metrics is valid, this option checks the average of processing times instead of individual processing times. Since the requirement specifies a strict limit of 5 seconds for each photo, using an average could lead to missed notifications if some processing times exceed 5 seconds but average out to below that threshold.
This option involves Kinesis, which is more complex than necessary for this task. While it could capture processing times, setting up a Kinesis data stream and processing the data to generate alarms adds significant operational overhead. Moreover, using CloudWatch for real-time monitoring is more efficient in this context.
I outline that the answer is:
Create an Amazon CloudWatch custom metric. Each time a photo is processed, publish the processing time as a metric value. Create a CloudWatch alarm that is based on a static threshold of 5 seconds. Notify the development team by using an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic.