AWS CloudTrail vs Azure Monitor Activity Logs vs Google Cloud Audit Logs

Overview

Cloud auditing services provide transparency into user and system activity across your cloud environment. They are critical for governance, security, compliance, and operational troubleshooting. Here's a detailed comparison:

1. AWS CloudTrail – Detailed Breakdown

Architecture & Capabilities

• Tracks: All account activity, including API calls via AWS CLI, SDKs, Console, and services.

• Delivery Targets:

  • CloudWatch Logs (for real-time monitoring)

  • Amazon S3 (for long-term archival)

  • Amazon SNS (for notifications)

• Trail Types:

  • Management events: CRUD actions on resources

  • Data events: S3, Lambda, DynamoDB object-level access

  • Insight events: Detect unusual activity patterns

On-Premise Monitoring Integration

• CloudTrail cannot directly monitor on-prem.

• You can use AWS Systems Manager Hybrid Activation with CloudWatch Agent on on-prem systems to forward logs.

• Alternatively, use AWS CloudTrail Lake to ingest external telemetry through the PutAuditEvents API.

Security & Compliance

• All events are signed and encrypted.

• Integration with AWS Config ensures full visibility of configuration changes.

Retention Strategy

• Send to S3 for long-term compliance (up to 7+ years)

• Use S3 Lifecycle policies for archive transition and deletion.

Flow Integration Example

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graph LR A[AWS Console/CLI/API] --> B[CloudTrail] B --> C[CloudWatch Logs] B --> D[S3 Bucket] C --> E[Alerts via SNS]

2. Azure Monitor Activity Logs – Detailed Breakdown

Architecture & Capabilities

• Tracks: Write operations (control-plane) performed on Azure resources.

• Does not track data-plane activities (use Diagnostic Logs for this).

• Delivered To:

  • Azure Monitor (by default)

  • Log Analytics (via Diagnostic Settings)

  • Azure Event Hub / Storage Account

Matrix & Rules

• Activity Logs + Diagnostic Logs allow building complex Log Analytics queries.

• Define Azure Monitor Alert rules with log signal types.

• You can correlate user actions via Azure Resource Graph.

Monitoring Hybrid Systems

• Use Azure Arc to connect and manage on-prem and multi-cloud environments.

• Send custom logs from on-prem systems using Azure Monitor Agent or legacy Log Analytics Agent.

Retention Strategy

• Default: 90 days

• Extended: Via Log Analytics workspace retention policy

3. Google Cloud Audit Logs – Detailed Breakdown

Architecture & Types of Logs

• Admin Activity Logs (always on, free)

• Data Access Logs (optional and billable)

• System Event Logs

• Policy Denied Logs (IAM policy violations)

Export Options

• Cloud Logging is the central destination.

• Logs can be routed to:

  • BigQuery (analytics)

  • Cloud Storage (archival)

  • Pub/Sub (stream processing)

Flow Integration

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graph TD X[GCP Admin/API Call] --> Y[Cloud Audit Logs] Y --> Z1[Cloud Logging] Z1 --> Z2[BigQuery] Z1 --> Z3[Cloud Storage] Z1 --> Z4[Pub/Sub]

Retention Strategy

• Default retention in Cloud Logging is:

  • 30 days (customizable)

  • Admin logs retained for 400 days (in some services)

  • Export for long-term compliance

Common Integration Scenarios

Challenges & Considerations

1. Data Volume & Cost

• Data events (S3, GCP storage access) generate high volumes – monitor for cost.

• Enable logs selectively using include/exclude filters.

2. Hybrid/On-Prem Support

• Native cloud audit logs don’t monitor on-prem.

• Requires custom log shipping agents:

  • CloudTrail Lake or CloudWatch Agent (AWS)

  • Azure Monitor Agent or Azure Arc (Azure)

  • Custom logs to Cloud Logging via Pub/Sub or API (GCP)

3. Log Retention and Security

• Default retention often insufficient for compliance needs.

• Secure archival (encryption, bucket policies) is required.

• Ensure log immutability using S3 Object Lock or Azure Immutable Storage.

4. Multi-Account & Federation

• AWS: Use Organizations with delegated admin

• Azure: Centralized management via Azure Lighthouse

• GCP: Organization-level scoping and folder-level audit configs

Dependencies & Best Practices

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Disclaimer

This article is independently developed and not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). All service names, prices, and descriptions are based on publicly available sources as of June 2025 and may change.