Amazon CloudWatch vs ManageEngine File Audit Plus comparison

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?

• Seamless integration with AWS: Ensures smooth operation with AWS services.
• Real-time data and alerts: Provides immediate insights and notifications.
• Detailed metrics: Offers in-depth data on infrastructure and application performance.
• Scalability: Supports growing needs with ease.
• Ease of setup: Quick and straightforward installation.
• Affordability: Cost-effective monitoring solution.
• Alarms and dashboards: Customizable alerts and visual insights.
• Automated responses: Facilitates automatic actions based on set criteria.
• System and application health insights: Delivers comprehensive health reports.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

• Optimized cloud utilization: Ensures efficient use of resources.
• Improved troubleshooting: Identifies and resolves issues quickly.
• Enhanced service availability: Keeps services running smoothly.
• Effective log analysis: Provides valuable insights from collected logs.
• Performance profiling: Assesses and optimizes application performance.
• Scalable monitoring: Adapts to growing business needs.

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.

ManageEngine FileAudit Plus is an agent-based file auditing and reporting software. Monitor in real-time the changes to all files in the file system along with thorough reports on every activity as to 'who' did 'what', 'when' and 'from where'. Keep track of changes made to the files, file objects in the folders or sub-folders and shares. Watch out for any changes made to a particular type of file (for e.g. *.log) or choose to exclude servers and file types.

Any good organization's security policies would recommend the use of a real-time file monitoring tool to continuously monitor the system files and Compliance standards like PCI DSS (11.5), Sarbanes-Oxley (Section 404), FISMA (NIST SP800-53) specifically regulate the need to perform periodic checks for any unauthorized modification of critical files on Windows File servers (system files, configuration files or text files; and ensure a reporting activity for periodic security analysis or for forensics in the event of a security breach.

With FileAudit Plus, keep a detailed record of every file access and activity, get email alerts for critical / unusual activities, monitor file permissions, identify file owners and meet Compliance requirements.