Hot storage provides immediate, high-speed access to data, making it the appropriate choice for disaster recovery scenarios where backup data must be available without delay.

Archive storage is the most cost-effective type of tiered storage for retaining data that is infrequently accessed and only when required for compliance reasons. It is designed for long- term storage and offers lower storage costs compared to hot, cold, or warm storage tiers.

Performance metrics provide historical and real-time data about application behavior, including resource utilization, response times, throughput, and error rates. Since the issue has been occurring over the last month, analyzing performance metrics is the best way to identify trends, anomalies, and potential causes of the erratic behavior over time.

Defining the scope is the first step in a vulnerability assessment. Before scanning begins, the cloud engineer must determine which cloud resources, systems, applications, and environments are included in the assessment. Establishing the scope ensures the scan is properly targeted and that all relevant assets are evaluated.

End of life refers to the point at which data is no longer required to be retained according to business, legal, or regulatory requirements. Since the company is required to keep historical data for seven years, data older than that retention period has reached its end of life and can be automatically deleted.