Comparision of AWS Cloudwatch, Cloudtrail and Security Hub

AWS CloudWatch:

Provides monitoring and observability tools for AWS resources, applications, and services.

Allows tracking of metrics, collection, and monitoring of log files, and setting alarms.

Scales with AWS resources, integrates with other AWS services, and provides real-time monitoring.

Enables log aggregation and analysis, simplifying troubleshooting and issue resolution.

Integrates with AWS Lambda for automation and orchestration.

AWS CloudTrail:

Records API calls within an AWS account, creating an audit trail of actions.

Helps meet compliance requirements and provides visibility into account activity.

Enables security analysis, threat detection, and troubleshooting.

Provides operational insights, including resource usage and performance monitoring.

Integrates with other AWS services for cross-service analysis and enhanced security controls.

AWS Security Hub:

Offers centralized security management and aggregates security data from various sources.

Provides continuous security monitoring and generates security findings.

Performs automated compliance checks against industry standards.

Integrates with security partners and offers actionable insights and remediation steps.

Streamlines security operations and reduces response time.

Drawbacks of the services:

AWS CloudWatch:
Configuration complexity.

Potential delay in data ingestion and processing.

Additional costs as monitoring needs and resource usage increase.

AWS CloudTrail:

Limited native integration with non-AWS resources.

Lack of detailed insight into user or application-level activities.

Log management and storage challenges.

AWS Security Hub:

Limited customization options.

Dependency on integration partners.

Complex findings management.

AWS Security Hub provides near real-time monitoring of security-related events and findings. It
continuously analyzes data from various AWS services and third-party security tools, providing up-to-
date information on the security posture of your AWS environment. It aggregates and correlates
security findings, helping you identify and respond to security events promptly.

The differences between the services are as follows:

AWS CloudWatch:

Purpose: Monitoring and observability.

Functionality: Collects metrics, logs, and events for AWS resources.

Key Features: Metrics monitoring, log monitoring, automation, and dashboards.

Use Cases: Performance monitoring, log analysis, and automated actions.

AWS CloudTrail:

Purpose: Auditing and compliance.

Functionality: Records API calls and related events.

Key Features: Audit trail, log file integrity validation, and governance capabilities.

Use Cases: Security analysis, compliance reporting, and troubleshooting.

AWS Security Hub:

Purpose: Centralized security and compliance management.

Functionality: Aggregates and correlates security findings.

Key Features: Continuous security monitoring, automated compliance checks, and a centralized
dashboard.

Use Cases: Security and compliance monitoring, vulnerability management, and threat detection.

AWS Security Hub's security dashboard provides an overview of security findings and metrics, allows
filtering and sorting of findings, presents trends and benchmarking against industry standards, and
offers customization options. It also performs automated compliance checks, supports predefined
compliance standards, generates compliance reports, and provides remediation guidance.

AWS Security Hub enables customized automation through integration with AWS Systems Manager
Automation. This allows users to define their own automation documents and create customized
automation workflows for tasks such as remediation actions, incident response, and security
orchestration.

By combining the capabilities of AWS Security Hub and AWS Systems Manager Automation, users can
design and implement automation workflows tailored to their specific security requirements and
operational needs.