A cloud administrator would like to maintain file integrity checks through hashing on a cloud object store. Which of the following is MOST suitable from a performance perspective?

SHA-256 generates a 256-bit digest using 32-bit word operations, making it efficient across a wide range of server architectures. In cloud object storage scenarios involving large numbers of objects, the smaller digest size reduces metadata storage costs and the 32-bit operation model results in faster throughput than SHA-512, especially on systems without native 64-bit optimization. It remains cryptographically secure for integrity checking purposes.

SHA-512 uses 64-bit word operations and produces a 512-bit digest, which increases storage overhead per object and can be slower than SHA-256 on hardware without native 64-bit instruction support.

MD5 has well-documented collision vulnerabilities and is considered cryptographically broken, making it unsuitable for security-grade file integrity checks despite its speed.

AES is a symmetric block cipher used for encryption, not a hashing algorithm, and cannot produce a hash digest for integrity verification.