Retaining Application Metrics for Legal Proceedings: Best Approach

Retaining Application Metrics for Legal Proceedings

Question

Your organization requires that metrics from all applications be retained for 5 years for future analysis in possible legal proceedings.

Which approach should you use?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

B.

Stackdriver Logging provides you with the ability to filter, search, and view logs from your cloud and open source application services.

Allows you to define metrics based on log contents that are incorporated into dashboards and alerts.

Enables you to export logs to BigQuery, Google Cloud Storage, and Pub/Sub.

https://cloud.google.com/stackdriver/

The correct answer for this scenario is D. Configure Stackdriver Monitoring for all Projects, and export to Google Cloud Storage.

Here's why:

A. Grant the security team access to the logs in each Project: This approach does not meet the requirement of retaining metrics for five years, as logs in each project may be deleted after a certain period. Moreover, granting access to the security team alone may not be sufficient to retain and analyze the logs.

B. Configure Stackdriver Monitoring for all Projects, and export to BigQuery: This approach can work, but it may be expensive since BigQuery charges for the storage and processing of data. Additionally, you may need to configure a specific retention policy to retain the data for 5 years, which can further increase the cost.

C. Configure Stackdriver Monitoring for all Projects with the default retention policies: By default, Stackdriver Monitoring retains logs for 30 days only, which does not meet the requirement of retaining metrics for 5 years.

D. Configure Stackdriver Monitoring for all Projects, and export to Google Cloud Storage: This approach is the most appropriate because it allows for the configuration of retention policies that meet the requirement of retaining metrics for 5 years. Also, Google Cloud Storage is a cost-effective solution for long-term data storage. Exporting the logs to Google Cloud Storage can be automated and scheduled for regular intervals, reducing the manual effort required to ensure compliance with the retention policy. The exported logs can then be analyzed using various tools, including BigQuery, if needed.

In conclusion, the best approach for this scenario is to configure Stackdriver Monitoring for all projects and export logs to Google Cloud Storage, which can meet the requirement of retaining metrics for 5 years, while also being cost-effective and manageable.