# CloudWatch Events

## CloudWatch Events

* CloudWatch Events **delivers a near real-time stream of system events that describe changes in AWS resources**.

* Using simple rules that you can quickly set up, **you can match events and route them to one or more target functions or streams**.<br>

* CloudWatch Events responds to these operational changes and takes corrective action as necessary, by **sending messages to respond to the environment**, **activating functions**, **making changes**, and **capturing state information**.<br>

* **CloudWatch Alarms just notifies you of a metric breaching the specified threshold**, like if the CPU Usage goes above 50%, then do an SNS notification to the owner.<br>
  * Whereas with **CloudWatch Alarms, it actually trigger an action something based on a condition**, like an **Lambda function is triggered when a root user logs in** or take an **EBS snapshot every hour**.<br>

* Note: **CloudWatch Events and EventBridge are the same underlying service and API**.<br>
  * But **EventBridge provides more features**.