If AWS holds its market share then this will only continue as more enterprises incorporate cloud services into their network environments and seek out the best AWS monitoring services.

The prevalence of AWS-maintained cloud services has made it essential for organizations to have tools for monitoring AWS products.

Here are the best AWS monitoring tools & services:

The Best Services & Tools for Monitoring AWS

1. Datadog AWS Monitoring (FREE TRIAL)

Our methodology for selecting AWS monitoring tools

  • A monitor for a range of AWS services, not just S3 or EC2
  • The ability to mix in AWS monitoring with other application monitoring, including on-site systems
  • Live performance monitoring
  • Alerts that indicate when expected performance levels drop
  • A notification system that forwards alerts by email or SMS
  • A free trial for a risk-free assessment period or a money-back guarantee
  • Value for money with tools that repay their cost with efficiency

Key Features:

  • Add-on module
  • Infrastructure monitoring
  • Adapted to specific AWS products
  • Application tracking
  • Resource monitoring

Datadog is a SaaS system and it is paid for by subscription. Buyers can choose from a range of modules, any of these can work as a standalone service or they can be combined. The combination of the Datadog Infrastructure monitoring system and the Datadog APM would fully cover all of the monitoring needs for AWS. Users access the interactive dashboard through a browser and can customize the screens of the system management console.

The Datadog operations and console can be adapted by activating vendor-specific integrations and there is an AWS integration available. This adds extra screens to the console, such as the ELB monitoring screen to track the performance of load balancing.

Features in the Datadog service include a stack analysis system, which groups together overviews of both software and hardware live statuses. End-to-end delivery is also examined live as are host maps and network topology maps. All of the graphics in the screens are color-coded to make problem recognition a lot faster.

The standard version of Infrastructure, which is called Pro includes an alerting system, so you should be able to spot problems before they become critical. The higher plan, which is called Enterprise, uses AI methods to discover more complicated problems that involve several elements of system performance. Enterprise also gives you AI-based support with a problem root core investigation tool to spot the cause of any problem.

Both Infrastructure monitoring and the APM are available for Datadog on a 14-day free trial.

Pros:

  • Provides templated monitors and dashboards that cater to AWS environments
  • Easy to use customizable dashboards
  • Cloud-based SaaS product allows monitoring with no server deployments or onboarding costs
  • Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps on the fly
  • Allows businesses to scale their monitoring efforts reliably through flexible pricing options

Cons:

  • Would like to see a longer trial period for testing

2. SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability (FREE TRIAL)

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Download: Start 14-day FREE Trial

Official Site: https://www.datadoghq.com/free-datadog-trial/

OS: Cloud-based

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability provides an integrated approach to monitoring on-premises and cloud systems. With this tool, you discover, map, log, and monitor all of your hardware and software assets and then implement monitoring with cross-platform dependencies in mind. For example, you might construct a package for use by your office-based users on an AWS platform and then need to watch the performance of that app’s delivery from AWS, over the internet, through your network and endpoints, onto the user’s screen.

  • Identifies service dependencies
  • Tracks activity across stack layers
  • Maps all assets no matter where they are

You start off with the Hybrid Cloud Observability system by granting access to each platform that you use and installing a data collection agent on it. This will cover the local network as well as devices connected to it and create a network map. That map will extend out to the cloud and the services that you use on AWS. It will also map connections to the other cloud platforms that you operate an account on.

With this tool, you can focus performance detection on user experience. Thus, if issues start to arise in delivery, the monitor tracks back through the application stack to the host of the troubled package, noting the performance statuses of each element along the way. This provides immediate root cause analysis and when you receive a performance alert from the monitoring service, you will be told exactly where the problem lies.

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability has recently been assessed, along with a few other SolarWinds tools and compared against the other major observability systems by GigaOM and you can get a copy of that assessment by accessing the 2022 GigaOm Radar for Cloud Observability page at the SolarWinds website.

  • Service maps with device connections

  • Application dependency mapping for root cause analysis

  • AI-based identification of problem sources

  • Options to deploy on site or on the cloud

  • Although there is a cloud installation option, this is not a SaaS package

You can host the main server of Hybrid Cloud Observability on your AWS account. It is also possible to host it on an Azure account. Probably the most widely-used configuration is to install the software on site on Windows Server. Whichever platform you install the server on, you will need to install data gathering agents on all of your other systems. Get to know Hybrid Cloud Observability with a 30-day free trial.

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability Start 30-day FREE Trial

GigaOm Radar for Cloud Observability Download Report

3. eG Enterprise AWS Monitoring (FREE TRIAL)

The eG Enterprise monitoring package from eG Innovations is an infrastructure and application monitoring system that is fully customizable. You get a library of screens to choose from and all of them drill down through your applications to give you full stack observability. This provides instant root cause analysis when performance problems arise, letting you know exactly which service is causing delivery issues.

The infrastructure monitor is able to watch over the performance of resources on the cloud and on-premises. The eG Enterprise system is very flexible and you need to make decisions about how you want to implement it. The main decision you need to make is whether to take the system as a software package to host yourself or to access the system as a SaaS package.

The eG enterprise system has specialized monitoring services for more than 200 technologies and you probably won’t need all of them. To prevent your menu from being crowded with services that you don’t want, product-specific monitoring screens are provided through a library of plugins.

To get AWS monitoring, you need to activate an integration. This is a free extension that adds on screens to the console and opens up a connection manager to your AWS account.

The eG Innovation website states that the AWS monitoring service is agentless. This is possible because it interfaces to AWS CloudWatch – the monitoring service that is built into the AWS platform. You still need to set up the monitor, however, by giving it the details of your account.

The eG Enterprise tool offers a lot more than AWS monitoring, so you really need to check out the system yourself to get a complete picture of its capabilities. If you choose the on-premises option, you can run the software on Windows, Windows Server, Linux, or Unix.

  • Mix AWS monitoring with on-premises resource tracking

  • Add in application monitoring to see what AWS supports

  • Alerts for performance errors

  • Connection tests

  • Pricing is not transparent, must request quote

Licensing is evaluated per physical server, which gives you the monitoring capacity for unlimited virtual systems on that platform. The price for the SaaS version starts at $125 per month. You can choose to get the on-premises package on a subscription with a starting price of $100 per month or get a perpetual license for $10,000. Access a 30-day free trial to assess the package.

eG Enterprise Access 30-day FREE Trial

4. ManageEngine Applications Manager (FREE TRIAL)

  • Monitors services on-premises and in the cloud
  • Specialized routines for AWS
  • Can be hosted on AWS

Similarly, ManageEngine Applications Manager’s RDS monitoring allows you to view the CPU utilization, database connections, latency metrics, and traffic of RDS instances.

All of this information is displayed in a clear format without any complex displays. However, if you want to integrate ManageEngine Application Manager with another tool then you can make use of the REST API to pull custom metrics from other monitoring solutions.

ManageEngine Applications Manager is worth consideration based on its low-maintenance approach to AWS monitoring. The Professional Edition of ManageEngine Applications Manager starts at $945 (£724) for 25 monitors to 250 monitors for $7,195 (£5,514). The Enterprise Edition starts at $9,595 (£7,353) for 250 monitors to $83,995 (£64,375) for 5000 monitors. There is also a 30-day free trial that you can download for Windows and Linux.

  • Supports AWS environments as well as other cloud and hybrid cloud architectures

  • Offers on-premises and cloud deployment options, giving companies more choices for deployment

  • Can highlight interdependencies between applications to map out how performance issues can impact businesses operations

  • Can automatically detect databases, server hardware, and devices in real-time

  • Can take time to fully explore all features and options available

ManageEngine Applications Manager Download 30-day FREE Trial

5. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor (FREE TRIAL)

  • Monitor AWS and other platforms
  • On-premises monitoring
  • Monitors connections as well as server resources

Each of these sensors has its own unique metrics that it uses to monitor the performance of your cloud service.

PRTG Network Monitor is a tool that is most suited for those looking for a general network monitoring solution with AWS server monitoring capabilities. The paid versions of PRTG Network Monitor start from $1,600 (£1,226) for 500 sensors. The largest version of PRTG is PRTG XL1 which costs $14,500 (£11,112) and provides you with unlimited sensors. You can also download a 30-day free trial.

  • Offers pre-built sensors specifically designed for AWS monitoring

  • All sensors can be customized (even the preconfigured sensors)

  • The dashboard is customizable through a series of widgets and feels intuitive out of the box

  • Supports a completely free version for up to 100 sensors, making this a good choice for both small and large networks

  • Pricing is based on sensor utilization, making this a flexible and scalable solution for larger networks as well as budget-conscious organizations

  • PRTG Network Monitor is a feature-rich platform that requires time to fully learn all of the features and options available

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor Start 30-day FREE Trial

6. Site24x7 AWS Monitoring (FREE TRIAL)

Site24x7 is a suite of systems monitors delivered from the cloud. The service is offered in modules and one of these, Infrastructure, is a network, server, and cloud services monitor. This tool is very good at tracking the performance of AWS and fine-tuning the services settings.

  • Combines AWS tracking with other monitoring services
  • Connection testing
  • Monitoring for other platforms and on-site systems

Site24x7 has specialist tools and screens for 35 AWS services. These include:

Database services, load balancers, network systems, CDN services, analytics, and security systems provided by AWS can also be included in Site24x7 Infrastructure monitoring.

The system isn’t cluttered up with features that you don’t need. These services only appear in the dashboard when you add them into the services settings for your account – all of these integrations add-ons are free to access and use.

Site24x7 Infrastructure is a subscription service with a base package that is paid for annually. The base plan can be enhanced by extra services, enabling each company to tailor the ideal combination of services. You can get a 30-day free trial of Site24x7 Infrastructure.

  • One of the most holistic monitoring tools available, supporting networks, infrastructure, and real user monitoring in a single platform

  • Uses real-time data to discover devices and build charts, network maps, and inventory reports

  • Offers out of the box monitoring for AWS, including prebuilt dashboard views

  • User monitoring can help bridge the gap between technical issues, user behavior, and business metrics

  • Intuitive design – works great with little configuration needed

  • Is a very detailed platform that will require time to fully learn all of its features and options

Site24x7 AWS Monitoring Start 30-day FREE Trial

7. StackPath Server Density

Next up we have StackPath’s Server Density, an infrastructure monitoring tool that has been designed specifically for monitoring cloud services, websites, and servers. You can use Server Density on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and FreeBSD. StackPath’s platform is also more than capable of monitoring AWS cloud services.

Server Density has a scalable pricing structure that is based on the number of servers you want to monitor. This starts from a price of $10 (£7.66) per month for one server, and $20 (£15.33) for two servers. If you need more servers, then there are several pricing options up to $250 (£191.61) per month for 25 servers. Any more servers than this and you’ll need to contact the sales team for a quote. You can download a 14-day free trial for evaluation.

  • A flexible cloud-based monitoring solution

  • Covers both hardware and networking monitoring

  • Alerting templates fit virtually any notification platform you wish to integrate into

  • Would like to see a longer trial period

8. Nagios XI

Nagios XI is a network monitoring tool that also offers support for monitoring AWS monitoring. Nagios XI can monitor key AWS components like E. However the main focus of this tool is on measuring the availability of AWS. The moment a service goes down, you’ll know about it. This approach is quite basic, but it does provide you with enough information to know if your service is in jeopardy.

What makes Nagios XI great for AWS monitoring is its use of additional plugins. There are a variety of different free plugins that can be downloaded specifically for monitoring AWS. One of the most significant is AWS Cloudwatch Metrics. AWS Cloudwatch Metrics is a plugin that has been designed to pull information, such as S3 storage statuses and ELB load balancing activities, straight from AWS CloudWatch.

Once this information has been pulled by the plugin, it can then be used for monitoring and can even produce alerts to notify you when something changes. Nagios XI’s alerts system notifies you when metrics exceed specific thresholds. This means that you’re not under pressure to catch everything, as the system will notify you automatically when you need to take action.

Nagios XI is available on CentOS and Redhat Enterprise Linux. It can be purchased as a license. The cheapest license is the Standard Edition which costs $1,995 (£1,529) and includes configuration wizards and reporting. The next version is the Enterprise edition which costs $3,495 (£2,678) and also provides web-based server console access and audit logging. You can download the free trial of Nagios XI.

  • Open-source transparent tool

  • Tons of community created AWS-related templates

  • Available on both Windows and Linux operating systems

  • The open-source version lacks the level of support found in paid products

9. Dynatrace

Dynatrace is a network monitoring solution that allows you to thoroughly examine the performance of your AWS resources. If your service is experiencing poor performance then Dynatrace will be able to tell you. You can view the performance data and health status of your AWS resource. It is interesting to note that Dynatrace is actually affiliated with AWS as an AWS APN Advanced Technology Partner.

  • AI-based monitoring
  • AWS integrations
  • Resource requirements mapping

Machine learning is a feature that separates Dynatrace from other run-of-the-mill network monitoring products. Dynatrace uses machine learning to monitor AWS services and detect abnormal behavior. Whether you’re using E, EBS, ELB, S3, or RDS, Dynatrace has you covered and can point to the root cause of most performance issues. This is invaluable when troubleshooting the service (particularly when transparency over AWS is so hard to come by!).

There is also considerable support for larger organizations that want to concentrate on optimizing resource usage. Dynatrace has its own Smartscape visualization system which shows you how much of your resource is being dedicated to each service. This allows you to see if there are ways you could optimize how your resources are being used.

  • Highly visual and customizable dashboards, excellent for enterprise NOCs

  • Operates in the cloud, allowing it to be platform-independent

  • Leverages AI to provide baseline analysis and assist technicians in troubleshooting

  • Would like to see a longer 30 day trial period

  • Features and tools are not designed for smaller networks – better for enterprises

10. AppDynamics

  • Automatic discovery
  • Network and dependency mapping
  • Specialized monitors for AWS

The main reason to use AppDynamics is its user interface. The user interface provides you with a real-time perspective of your cloud resources which allows you to look specifically at resource utilization. This is important for AWS monitoring because it ensures you’re always making the best use of your resources.

If you’re looking for a state-of-the-art AWS monitoring experience then look no further than AppDynamics. To view the price for AppDynamics Application Performance Management you’ll need to contact the sales team (though the price is reported to be considerably higher than many other products on this list). That being said, there is also a free trial which you can download.

  • Better suited for complex AWS deployments and hybrid cloud setups
  • Could benefit from a longer 30-day trial

11. Zenoss Core

Zenoss Core is an open-source network and cloud monitoring tool that offers an AWS-specific service.

  • ZenPack extension that adds AWS monitoring
  • Full stack monitoring
  • Performance alerts

Zenoss is recommended to those who want an open source AWS monitoring experience. There are two versions available of Zenoss for AWS monitoring; Zenoss Cloud Professional and Zenoss Cloud Enterprise. You’ll need to contact the sales team to receive a price quote. You can request a demo of Zenoss for free.

  • Open-source, completely free tool with two paid options

  • Uses network discovery to automatically monitor new assets in the environment

  • Can support multi-site networks encompassing both LAN and WAN

  • Support only for paid tiers

  • The free version is limited to 1000 devices

12. Splunk

Splunk is another well-respected name within the network monitoring space that includes a range of AWS monitoring capabilities. With Splunk you can view information on AWS instance changes, audit activity, security group violations, and unauthorized users. All of this information can be read through clear dashboard displays that stand with the very best on the market.

  • AWS resource maps
  • Live AWS monitoring
  • Graphs and alerts

When it comes to the raw data, Splunk delivers an experience that provides you with everything you need to know. You are provided with utilization metrics, usage data, traffic volumes, load balancing activities, and latency data so that you can tell how your AWS cloud resource is performing. These metrics can be displayed in a variety of visualizations driven by account, region and time.

One of the most useful features offered by Splunk is a visual display of your AWS resources. There is a Topology view that shows you a map of your AWS cloud resources. You also have the option to view additional information and resources by region, account, VPC, and time. For instance, you can go back to an earlier point in time to see how your resources were structured in the past.

There are multiple versions of Splunk available for purchase. The least expensive is Splunk Light which starts at $75 (£57.50) and offers monitoring for up to five users and 20gb of data per day. Splunk Enterprise offers unlimited users and unlimited data for $150 (£114) . There is also Splunk Cloud but you’ll have to contact the company directly to find out the price. There is also a free trial for Splunk.

  • Can utilize behavior analysis to detect misconfiguration, performance trends, and threats

  • Great user interface – highly visual with easy customization options

  • Available for Linux and Windows

  • Must contact sales for pricing

  • Better suited for large enterprises – many features are too complex for smaller businesses

13. Opsview

Opsview has its own fully-featured AWS monitoring capabilities. This tool allows you to view the performance of AWS instances through a high-quality display. In particular, you can view the current availability of your AWS service. Dashboards are completely customizable so that you can choose exactly how to monitor your cloud resources.

  • Live AWS monitoring with alerts
  • Customizable screens
  • Graphs and charts

There is a free version of Opsview which covers up to 25 hosts on Linux and Windows. The first paid version is the SMB plan which costs $2 (£1.53) a host per month for up to 300 hosts. The next plan is the Enterprise Plan which costs $4.50 (£3.45) per host per month which offers up to 20,000 hosts. You can download Opsview for free.

  • Would like to see more integration features

14. Zabbix

Finally, we have Zabbix, an open source network monitoring solution with over 300,000 installations worldwide. Zabbix has a range of cloud monitoring features and can monitor AWS services with ease. This tool has a traditional widget-based monitoring experience and the ability to convert metrics into graphs for further analysis.

  • Free to use
  • Accepts Nagios plug-ins
  • Specialized AWS screens

Zabbix has a full-featured alerts system. You can customize alert messages to different recipients and even escalate automatically if the first point of contact doesn’t respond. This means that if something changes in your AWS environment then the alert will be passed to the next available staff member. You can also customize message content so that the recipient has all the information needed to do further troubleshooting.

Organizations in need of a free tool for AWS monitoring would be well advised to download Zabbix. It has the core design to function well within an SME or large organization environment. Zabbix is available on CentOs, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Ubuntu. You can download Zabbix for free.

  • Open-source transparent tool

  • Is best suited for organizations looking for more customized monitoring of their AWS environment

  • Robust notification system supports SMS, email, custom script, and webhook

  • No support or paid technical assistance

Choosing an AWS Monitoring Tool

In most cases, these application monitoring tools don’t have AWS monitoring screens included with them automatically. However, with a simple activation button in the settings screens, AWS monitoring becomes available. This is the case with the SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, ManageEngine’s Applications Manager, PRTG, and Datadog’s monitoring system. These all have specific AWS screens that suddenly appear once activated.

Integrations add on monitoring of the AWS environment and any extra services, such as the Network Load Balancers, Applications Load Balancers, or Classic Load Balances of ELB. In other monitoring tools, AWS monitoring is provided by add-ons or plugins. This is the case with Nagios, Zenoss, ServerDensity, and AppDynamics.

Likewise, SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is capable of taking information from your AWS resources and combining it with an excellent alerts system. The on-demand alert generation will ensure that you can always add new alerts to keep tabs on your AWS performance.

See also: Best Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Tools