Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

AWS CloudTrail VS Azure API Management

Compare AWS CloudTrail VS Azure API Management and see what are their differences

AWS CloudTrail logo AWS CloudTrail

AWS CloudTrail is a web service that records AWS API calls for your account and delivers log files to you.

Azure API Management logo Azure API Management

Microsoft Azure API Management enables user to create consistent and modern API gateways for existing back-end services hosted anywhere, secure and protect them from abuse and overuse, and get insights into usage and health.
  • AWS CloudTrail Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18
  • Azure API Management Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-19

AWS CloudTrail features and specs

  • Comprehensive Logging
    AWS CloudTrail provides detailed logging of all API calls made within your AWS environment, helping you maintain accountability and transparency.
  • Enhanced Security
    By logging activities, CloudTrail helps in detecting unusual behavior and potential security threats, allowing for timely response.
  • Compliance and Auditing
    CloudTrail logs are crucial for regulatory compliance and auditing purposes, supporting frameworks such as HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS.
  • Integration
    CloudTrail integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like CloudWatch and AWS Lambda, enabling automated responses to specific activities.
  • Event History
    Access historical event records for your AWS account, enabling analysis and troubleshooting of past issues.
  • Data Retention
    CloudTrail allows you to define policies for retaining log data, ensuring that logs are available as long as needed for audits and investigations.

Possible disadvantages of AWS CloudTrail

  • Costs
    While CloudTrail's basic tier is free, there are costs associated with advanced features and long-term log storage, which can add up for large organizations.
  • Complexity
    Managing and analyzing a large volume of logs can become complex and time-consuming, especially without additional tools and expertise.
  • Performance Impact
    While minimal, there may be a slight performance overhead associated with logging large volumes of AWS API calls.
  • Incomplete Coverage
    Not all AWS services and features support CloudTrail logging, potentially leaving gaps in visibility for certain activities.
  • Latency
    There is some latency involved in the delivery of log data, which might delay real-time monitoring and response in critical scenarios.
  • Data Exposure Risk
    If not properly secured, CloudTrail logs themselves could become a target for attackers seeking sensitive information about your AWS environment.

Azure API Management features and specs

  • Comprehensive API Gateway
    Azure API Management offers a robust API gateway that helps in managing, securing, and analyzing APIs effectively. It supports complex policies, rate limiting, IP restrictions, and transformation of requests and responses.
  • Seamless Integration
    It seamlessly integrates with other Azure services like Azure Functions, App Services, and Logic Apps, streamlining workflows and enhancing functionality.
  • Developer Portal
    Comes with a customizable developer portal that enables easy onboarding and interactive documentation, improving developer experience and speeding up API adoption.
  • Multi-Region Deployment
    Supports multi-region deployments, ensuring high availability and low latency by replicating APIs across different geographic regions.
  • Scalability
    Azure API Management scales easily to meet the demand, allowing businesses to start small and grow with their customer base without worrying about infrastructure management.
  • Security Features
    Offers advanced security features such as OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and JWT token validation to ensure secure API access.
  • Analytics and Monitoring
    Provides comprehensive analytics and monitoring capabilities that help in tracking performance, usage patterns, and diagnosing issues quickly.

Possible disadvantages of Azure API Management

  • Cost
    Azure API Management can be expensive, especially for small businesses or startups. The cost can quickly ramp up with increased usage and advanced features.
  • Complexity
    The service can be complex to configure and manage, particularly for users who are not familiar with Azure services or API management concepts.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a steep learning curve associated with Azure API Management. It requires significant time and effort to become proficient in using and optimizing its features.
  • Dependency on Azure
    Heavily depends on the Azure ecosystem, which can be a limitation for organizations using a multi-cloud strategy or preferring other cloud providers.
  • Performance Overhead
    Introducing an API gateway can add some performance overhead, potentially affecting latency and response times if not properly optimized.
  • Limited Customization
    While it offers a range of features, some businesses may find the customization options limited compared to building an in-house solution tailored to specific requirements.

AWS CloudTrail videos

AWS Cloudtrail vs Cloudwatch in 15 minutes | AWS tutorial for beginners

More videos:

  • Review - AWS re:Invent 2018: Augmenting Security & Improving Operational Health w/ AWS CloudTrail (SEC323)

Azure API Management videos

Getting Started with Microsoft Azure API Management REST API

More videos:

  • Review - Using Products in Microsoft Azure API Management

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS CloudTrail and Azure API Management)
API Tools
71 71%
29% 29
APIs
70 70%
30% 30
Web Service Automation
66 66%
34% 34
Data Integration
51 51%
49% 49

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare AWS CloudTrail and Azure API Management

AWS CloudTrail Reviews

We have no reviews of AWS CloudTrail yet.
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Azure API Management Reviews

Top 10 Best API Management Tools with Feature Comparison
Using Microsoft Azure API management platform, you will be able to manage all your APIs at one place. It will provide you a token, key, and IP filtering functionalities to secure your APIs. You will get insights through API analytics.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, AWS CloudTrail should be more popular than Azure API Management. It has been mentiond 15 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

AWS CloudTrail mentions (15)

  • Strengthening Security and Compliance in AWS Cloud Services & The Essential Role of AI Verification.
    AWS CloudTrail AWS IAM: A service that allows you to manage access to AWS services and resources securely. https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Serverless AWS Account Watcher
    All actions in your account get recorded in the AWS CloudTrail application in AWS. This trail of everything that happens in your account will likely have a huge number of entries in it as it records pretty much everything that happens in your account. You can do queries on it and also download the logs and perform whatever processing you wish. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Programmatically reacting to S3 bucket external access exposures
    It uses CloudTrail events up to 90 days in the past and creates a tailor-made policy for the role based on the activity. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • AWS Security Survival Kit
    We know that CloudTrail is the bare minimum service to activate on a newly created AWS Account to track all activities on your AWS account. It helps, but this will not alert you to suspicious activities by itself. You still have to check periodically if something has gone wrong in multiple services and the console. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Receiving Slack notifications when CloudTrail logging gets turned off
    Amazon CloudTrail is the surveillance camera for our accounts. It records every API call that any users or roles make. If we have multiple accounts set up in AWS Organizations, we can create a central trail in the management account. We can then enable logging to all accounts and all regions. Or, if we use Control Tower to set up the account structure, we don't need to do anything because it will automatically... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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Azure API Management mentions (8)

  • 10 Lightweight API Gateways for Your Next Project
    Azure API Management is Microsoft's managed API gateway, offering request routing, policy enforcement, and telemetry collection. It supports both fully managed and self-hosted gateway deployments for hybrid or on-prem environments. - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • Serverless Security Best Practices
    Moreover, integrating rate limiting can thwart DDoS attacks, and schema validation can prevent malformed requests, ensuring only legitimate and well-formed traffic reaches your serverless functions. Tools like Amazon API Gateway, Azure API Management, and Google Cloud Endpoints offer these capabilities, allowing you to set up custom authorization workflows and request validation rules that align with your security... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • No Token in the Browser Pattern using Azure API Management
    This pattern uses Azure API Management in a Backend for Frontend pattern where it handles the OAuth2 access token acquisition from Azure Active Directory; AES encryption and decryption of the access token into an HttpOnly cookie; and to proxy all API calls requiring authorization. This is performed by the use of Azure API Management Policies. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • How to choose the right API Gateway
    Because the configuration is a highly critical feature, we need to authenticate via an API key or by means of other auth methods. For example, most API Gateway providers such as Apache APISIX enabled token-based access to Admin API and they highly advise generating your own token and regularly changing it. Or Azure API Management relies on Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), which includes optional features such as... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Is auth WAY too hard in .NET?
    Check out https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/api-management/. Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS CloudTrail and Azure API Management, you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform - Anypoint Platform is a unified, highly productive, hybrid integration platform that creates an application network of apps, data and devices with API-led connectivity.

DreamFactory - DreamFactory is an API management platform used to generate, secure, document, and extend APIs.

Sentinet - API Management and SOA Governance for enterprises and developers

Apigee - Intelligent and complete API platform

tray.io - Enterprise-scale integration platform