Which AWS feature helps to ensure that resources are optimized and compliant with standards continuously?

The correct answer is AWS Config Rules because this feature is designed specifically to help organizations maintain compliance and ensure that their AWS resources are configured in accordance with specified standards. AWS Config continuously monitors the configurations of AWS resources, such as EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and VPCs, and evaluates them against the defined rules.

When set up, AWS Config Rules assess the compliance of the resource configurations and can automatically remediate non-compliant resources or alert the relevant parties. This continuous monitoring capability allows organizations to proactively manage their environments, ensuring they conform to regulatory requirements and internal policies.

Other features, while useful for various purposes, do not primarily focus on continuous compliance and optimization in the same manner. For example, AWS Budgets helps manage and track costs rather than configurations. AWS Inspector is aimed at improving security by assessing the security state of applications, and AWS CloudTrail is used for logging and monitoring of account activity rather than ongoing compliance checks. Thus, AWS Config Rules is the best choice for ensuring that resources remain optimized and compliant over time.