CloudWatch's Observability Overhaul: Iceberg & Beyond

CloudWatch: A New Observability Era?

The AWS CloudWatch update, integrating Apache Iceberg for log data access and supporting standards like OCSF and OpenTelemetry, represents a significant move towards a unified observability platform. The ability to query logs in place via S3 tables, eliminating the need for extensive ETL pipelines, is a compelling advantage. This approach promises to streamline log management, reduce operational costs, and offer a single interface for querying data across various sources, including third-party vendors. The native aggregation of logs across accounts and regions further enhances its appeal, especially for enterprises operating in multi-account AWS environments. However, the article highlights the potential for vendor lock-in, as CloudWatch's managed service approach ties organizations more closely to the AWS ecosystem. This is a crucial consideration for teams prioritizing multi-cloud flexibility, where solutions like Splunk, Datadog or ELK stack still present viable alternatives. The comparison with existing solutions like Splunk, Datadog, and the ELK stack, reveals the trade-offs between managed service convenience and the flexibility offered by open-source or cross-platform solutions. The article also touches upon pricing and performance, which will be critical factors in determining its overall success.

Key Points

• CloudWatch is evolving into a unified observability platform with Apache Iceberg support, allowing in-place log querying via S3 tables.
• It offers native integration with AWS services and supports third-party log sources, streamlining log management and reducing ETL needs.
• While offering a managed service, it raises vendor lock-in concerns, and competes with solutions like Splunk, Datadog, and open-source alternatives.

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📖 Source: AWS CloudWatch Evolves into Unified Observability Platform with Apache Iceberg Support