Amazon CloudWatch and Elastic Security compete in the field of infrastructure monitoring and security analytics. Amazon CloudWatch holds an edge with its seamless integration within the AWS ecosystem and user-friendly interface, making it the preferred choice for AWS-centric users, while Elastic Security stands out for its robust SIEM capabilities and adaptability across various environments.
Features: Amazon CloudWatch offers comprehensive real-time data, alerts, and metrics essential for infrastructure monitoring. It excels in log management, task automation, and provides scalable solutions suited for the AWS ecosystem. Elastic Security focuses on flexible and scalable SIEM capabilities. It includes machine learning and threat hunting, offering advanced security analytics which is particularly valuable for users requiring deep insights into security data.
Room for Improvement: Amazon CloudWatch could benefit from enhanced dashboard capabilities and improved integration with non-AWS services. Users also express a need for more efficient log streaming and competitive pricing, especially for non-AWS environments. Elastic Security, though open-source, faces challenges with ease of use and documentation. It requires improvements in integration complexity and support for real-time monitoring, and users often encounter a steep learning curve.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon CloudWatch primarily supports public cloud deployments, with strong integration and a robust support structure. However, premium technical support can be costly. Elastic Security, supporting hybrid and on-premises environments, offers flexibility thanks to its open-source nature, though its technical support is generally considered less comprehensive compared to Amazon's structured service.
Pricing and ROI: Amazon CloudWatch operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model which can become expensive as usage increases. However, many users find the investment worthwhile due to cost savings on physical monitoring. Elastic Security, being open-source, has an initial cost advantage, but scaling complexities and the need for professional support can impact long-term ROI. Reviews highlight Amazon CloudWatch's operational efficiency leading to clear ROI, whereas Elastic Security is valued for its cost-effective advanced security functions for SMEs.
Amazon CloudWatch offers cost-saving advantages by being an inbuilt solution that requires no separate setup or maintenance for monitoring tasks.
It does not require hefty security budgets and can be deployed for enterprise security effectively.
While using their cloud and cloud resources, if you have an issue with CloudWatch, you must pay additional monthly fees to get time from dedicated tech support.
In recent years, due to business expansion, knowledge levels among support engineers seem to vary.
Most of the time when my team encounters issues, they receive responses within 24 hours.
Providing necessary assistance efficiently.
Amazon CloudWatch's scalability is managed by AWS.
It allows us to think about specific use cases, such as gathering malicious IPs in a single view and analyzing threats based on geolocation.
I sometimes notice slowness when Amazon CloudWatch agents are installed on machines with less capacity, causing me to use other monitoring tools.
In terms of stability, I would rate Elastic a solid eight out of ten.
When using third-party dashboards such as Kibana or Grafana and other visualization tools, there should be a way to feed CloudWatch's data and logging capabilities into these visualization tools.
Amazon CloudWatch charges extra for custom metrics, which is a significant disadvantage.
Maybe Amazon Web Services can improve by providing a library for CloudWatch with some useful features.
CrowdStrike and Defender have more established threat intelligence integration due to having a larger client base.
My security testing team continuously reports vulnerabilities, and we have to fix and update the versions frequently.
Elastic Security consumes a lot of resources, requiring a substantial deployment setup.
Overall, the pricing of Amazon CloudWatch is very expensive.
Amazon CloudWatch charges more for custom metrics as well as for changes in the timeline.
This is beneficial for SMEs as they do not need extensive budgets for security solutions.
The pricing is reasonable, especially for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), making it a viable option for businesses building their security infrastructure.
Elastic Security is considered cost-effective, especially at lower EPS levels.
Being an inbuilt solution from AWS, it saves time on installation, setup, and maintenance.
I like its filtering capability and its ability to give the cyber engine insights.
The best features of Amazon CloudWatch need to improve visibility into the network because when using hundreds of network resources such as transit gateway, VPNs, routers, route tables, and firewalls, it does not give many details in a structured manner.
We require rapid processing speed for alerts and event data, and Elastic Security is very efficient at handling this level of data.
Elastic Security offers good insight regarding alerts, reports, and cases.
The platform provides more visibility and requires less effort in monitoring.
Amazon CloudWatch is used for monitoring, tracking logs, and organizing metrics across AWS services. It detects anomalies, sets dynamic alarms, and automates actions to optimize cloud utilization, troubleshoot, and ensure service availability.
Organizations leverage Amazon CloudWatch for collecting and analyzing logs, triggering alerts, and profiling application performance. It's also employed for monitoring bandwidth, virtual machines, Lambda functions, and Kubernetes clusters. Valuable features include seamless integration with AWS, real-time data and alerts, detailed metrics, and a user-friendly interface. It provides robust monitoring capabilities for infrastructure and application performance, log aggregation, and analytics. Users appreciate its scalability, ease of setup, and affordability. Additional key aspects are the ability to create alarms, dashboards, and automated responses, along with detailed insights into system and application health. Room for improvement includes dashboards and UI enhancements for better visualization and customizability, log streaming speed, advanced machine learning and reporting capabilities, pricing, and integration with non-AWS services and databases. Users also seek more real-time monitoring and comprehensive application performance features, and simpler alerts and configuration processes.
What are the most important features?
What benefits and ROI can users expect?
Amazon CloudWatch is implemented across a range of industries, including technology, finance, healthcare, and retail. Technology firms use it to monitor application performance and traffic, while financial organizations leverage it for ensuring compliance and system reliability. Healthcare entities rely on it for maintaining service availability and monitoring data flow, and retail companies utilize it for tracking customer interactions and optimizing server usage.
Elastic Security combines the features of a security information and event management (SIEM) system with endpoint protection, allowing organizations to detect, investigate, and respond to threats in real time. This unified approach helps reduce complexity and improve the efficiency of security operations.
Additional offerings and benefits:
Finally, Elastic Security benefits from a global community of users who contribute to its threat intelligence, helping to enhance its detection capabilities. This collaborative approach ensures that the solution remains on the cutting edge of cybersecurity, with up-to-date information on the latest threats and vulnerabilities.
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