CloudWatch Metric Streams | Overview.

Amazon CloudWatch Metric Streams - Overview.

 Scope:

• Intro,
• The concept: CloudWatch Metric Streams,
• How They Work,
• Key Features,
• Security & Permissions,
• Use Cases,
• Sample Script to Create CloudWatech Metric Stream (CLI),
• Sample Architecture Diagrams,
• Limitations,
• Final Tips.

Intro:

• Amazon CloudWatch metric streams is an AWS service that provides a continuous, near real-time, push-based delivery of all or filtered CloudWatch metrics to a destination of twtech choice. 
• Amazon CloudWatch metric streams offers a more efficient alternative to polling metrics via API calls, especially for high-scale monitoring and Observability.

The concept: CloudWatch Metric Streams

•        CloudWatch Metric Streams provide a real-time, continuous stream of CloudWatch metrics to destinations outside of CloudWatch.
•        Instead of periodically polling CloudWatch with GetMetricData or ListMetrics, twtech can push metrics in near real-time to services like:
•         Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose → S3, Redshift, OpenSearch, Athena Splunk, etc.
•         Partner monitoring tools (Datadog, New Relic, Dynatrace, etc.) via Firehose.
•        This makes Metric Streams especially useful for observability pipelines, analytics, and machine learning use cases.

 How They Work

1. Source: CloudWatch metrics (custom + AWS service metrics).
2. Filter: Select namespaces, dimensions, or all metrics.
3. Stream: Send metrics continuously (typically 1–2 minutes delay).
4. Delivery: Metrics land in twtech chosen Firehose delivery stream → final storage/analysis tool.

 NB:

• twtech no longer need custom polling scripts or exporters.

 Key Features

• Real-time streaming (sub-minute granularity).
• Scalable: Can stream millions of metrics without API throttling.
• Efficient Cost Model: Pay per 1000 metrics streamed (cheaper than repeated GetMetricData).
• Multiple Formats:
• OpenTelemetry 0.7 JSON
• CloudWatch JSON (native format)

 Security & Permissions

• Metric Streams use IAM roles to grant CloudWatch permission to write to Firehose.
• Data is encrypted with KMS keys when stored or delivered.
• twtech-users can restrict by account, region, and namespace.

 Use Cases

1. Centralized Monitoring
   Stream metrics from multiple AWS accounts/regions into a single analytics tool.
2. Custom Dashboards & Analytics
   Store metrics in S3 + Athena/QuickSight for historical analysis beyond CloudWatch’s retention.
3. Machine Learning
   Feed time-series metrics into SageMaker or external ML systems for anomaly detection.
4. Third-Party Monitoring Integration
   Push metrics directly to Splunk, Datadog, New Relic, Dynatrace, etc.

# Sample Script to Create CloudWatech Metric Stream (CLI)

# bash

aws cloudwatch create-metric-stream \

  --name twtechMetricStream \

  --firehose-arn arn:aws:firehose:us-east-2:accountID:deliverystream/twtechFirehose \

  --role-arn arn:aws:iam::accountID:role/twtechMetricStreamRole \

  --output-format opentelemetry0.7 \

  --include-namespaces "AWS/EC2" "AWS/Lambda"

  

 # Sample Architecture Diagrams 

 CloudWatch Metrics

         │

        ▼

   Metric Streams

         │

        ▼

 Kinesis Firehose ──► S3/ Redshift / OpenSearch /Partner Tools  

 Limitations

• Not all AWS regions support Metric Streams yet.
• Maximum of 500 metric streams per account per region.
• Minimum data delay: ~1–2 minutes (not nanosecond real-time).
• Does not include CloudWatch Logs (only metrics).

Final Tips:

• CloudWatch Metric Streams = scalable, near real-time pipeline for exporting metrics to analytics, observability, and ML platforms without API polling overhead.