| Feature | AWS CloudTrail | Amazon CloudWatch |
| Purpose | Auditing | Monitoring |
| Data Collected | API calls made to AWS services, including management console sign-in events | Metrics, log data, and events from AWS resources and applications |
| Integration | Multiple AWS services, including AWS Lambda, Amazon S3, and Amazon EC2 | Multiple AWS services, as well as third-party resources such as operating systems, databases, and custom applications |
| Alerting & Notification | Basic alerting available via Amazon SNS, can trigger Lambda functions or send SMS/email notifications | Advanced alerting with Alarms, which can automatically react to changes in metric values, and CloudWatch Events, which can trigger workflows across multiple AWS resources |
| Centralized Log Management | Yes, provides a centralized log repository for auditing and analysis | No, designed to monitor resources in real-time and provide actionable insights, not for long-term log storage |
| Compliance and governance | Provides evidence of who did what, when, for compliance auditing and regulatory reporting | No, focused on real-time monitoring and troubleshooting of resources |
| Real-time Monitoring | No, CloudTrail data is delivered every 5 minutes | Yes, metrics are collected and analyzed in near real-time |
| Retention Period | Up to 90 days, configurable with AWS S3 and Glacier storage options | Up to 15 months, configurable with AWS S3 and Glacier storage options |
| Cost | Pay-per-use, charges for data delivery and storage | Pay-per-use, charges for data ingestion, storage, and analyzing of log data and metrics |
“Jaiinfoway provides both AWS Cloud Trail and Amazon CloudWatch to ensure comprehensive monitoring and auditing of our AWS infrastructure. AWS Cloud Trail provides a complete record of all API calls made to AWS services, including management console sign-in events, giving us a centralized log repository for auditing and analysis. On the other hand, Amazon CloudWatch monitors our AWS resources and applications in real-time, collecting metrics, log data, and events, providing actionable insights and advanced alerting capabilities through Alarms and CloudWatch Events. With both tools, we can ensure the compliance, governance, and real-time monitoring of our AWS infrastructure.”