Single service comparison

GCP Audit Logs are structurally a logging payload consumed through Cloud Logging, so the same query, sink, metric, and alerting machinery applies to both audit and application logs. Huawei splits these concerns: Cloud Trace Service (CTS) owns the immutable operation-trace record (who, when, API call, resource) for control-plane actions, while Log Tank Service (LTS) is the general log aggregation and query plane. CTS exposes a fixed trace schema and a tracker that archives to OBS; it does not offer GCP-style aggregated log routers or organization-level sink filters across arbitrary log categories.

Scope and retention differ materially. GCP lets an organisation aggregate Admin Activity and Data Access logs from all projects/folders into a single sink with destination-defined retention and BigQuery SQL analytics. CTS records traces per tracker and region, provides a short real-time query window (typically 7 days) on the console, and relies on OBS archival plus LTS import for longer-term or cross-aggregation analysis. Data Access-style logging, which GCP enables per service with IAM permission, has no single CTS toggle; per-service data-plane auditing on Huawei typically requires combining CTS with service-native audit features and LTS collection.

Integration and pricing models diverge. GCP Admin Activity and System Event logs are always-on and free; Data Access and retained logs are billed through Cloud Logging storage and sink egress. CTS itself is free, but durable retention and analytics carry OBS storage, LTS ingestion, and SMN notification costs. Encryption partners also differ: GCP uses Cloud KMS for log bucket CMEK, while CTS integrates with Data Encryption Workshop (DEW) for trace file encryption and OBS SSE for archive buckets.

Assume the audit plane first. Inventory which GCP log categories (Admin Activity, Data Access, System Event, Policy Denied) and which sink destinations feed your compliance, SIEM, and alerting workflows. Map Admin Activity and System Event logs to CTS traces, and plan LTS to absorb Data Access-style and application audit streams that CTS does not natively capture. Confirm region coverage, trace query window (about 7 days real-time), and required retention before designing OBS archival.

Rebuild collection, routing, and analytics in Huawei terms. Enable a CTS tracker per region to archive traces to an OBS bucket encrypted with DEW KMS, and configure SMN key-event notifications for the operations that previously triggered Cloud Monitoring alerting policies. Replace GCP log sinks to Pub/Sub or BigQuery with LTS ingestion plus an LTS-to-AOM/APM or LTS-to-OBS-to-data-warehouse pattern for long-term SQL analytics; expect to write queries against Huawei log structures rather than BigQuery audit log views.

Validate parity per service and category before cutover. Use the CTS Supported Services and Operations reference to confirm each GCP-audited service has a Huawei trace equivalent, because CTS coverage is service-by-service and Data Access-style logging varies. Replay representative operations, compare trace fields against GCP protoPayload entries, and verify integrity verification, IAM gating, and notification latency meet the same controls your auditors required on GCP.

Account for cost and governance shifts in the target state. CTS is free, but OBS storage, LTS ingestion volume, SMN message counts, and DEW key usage become the recurring audit-platform cost; recalculate TCO using peak event volume, multi-region duplicate storage, and SIEM forwarding traffic. Update compliance evidence references, retention SLAs, and cross-aggregation tooling, since GCP organisation sink semantics and BigQuery analytics do not transfer one-to-one and may need a composed CTS + LTS + SecMaster design.