AWS CloudWatch vs Datadog vs Grafana — UK Observability Platform (2025)
AWS CloudWatch is the right default for UK applications hosted on AWS — native integration, no data transfer costs, UK data residency in eu-west-2 confirmed, and CloudWatch Logs satisfies NHS DSP Toolkit and FCA audit log requirements. Datadog is better for multi-cloud or large engineering teams where developer experience and advanced APM justify the cost. Grafana (self-hosted with Prometheus/Loki) is for teams who want open-source with full data control. Observability platform choice affects UK GDPR log data residency, NHS DSP Toolkit audit requirements, FCA audit trail evidence, and engineering team productivity.
| Factor | AWS CloudWatch | Datadog | Grafana (self-hosted) |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK GDPR data residency | ✅ eu-west-2 — confirmed | ⚠️ US-headquartered — EU region available but verify DPA | ✅ Self-hosted on AWS eu-west-2 — full control |
| NHS DSP Toolkit audit logs | ✅ Native AWS — immutable CloudTrail | Good — but US data company | ✅ Self-hosted — strongest compliance story |
| FCA audit trail | ✅ CloudWatch Logs — 7-year retention configurable | Good — configurable retention | ✅ Loki — configurable retention |
| APM (distributed tracing) | AWS X-Ray — good, native | ✅ Datadog APM — best developer experience | Tempo + Jaeger — capable but manual |
| Cost at scale | ✅ Pay per log volume — predictable | Expensive at high volume — per-host pricing | ✅ Self-host cost only — cheapest at scale |
| Setup complexity | ✅ Zero setup on AWS — native | Easy SaaS — minimal setup | Complex — Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Tempo |
| Multi-cloud monitoring | Limited (AWS only) | ✅ Best — all clouds, infrastructure, APM | ✅ Multi-cloud via exporters |
| Alert integration | PagerDuty/Opsgenie via SNS | ✅ Native PagerDuty/Opsgenie/Slack | ✅ Alertmanager — configurable |
| ClickMasters default | ✅ AWS-native UK applications | Multi-cloud enterprise teams | FinTech/NHS needing full log control |
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