Cloud Custodian vs Powerpipe

Cloud Custodian manages cloud resources through policies written in YAML. Each policy names a resource type, filters for selecting resources, and actions to apply to matches. It supports security policy enforcement, compliance, tag policies, cleanup of unused resources, and cost management for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform resources. Policies can respond to provider events through serverless features or run on a cron schedule. Users can validate policies and preview matching resources in dry-run mode before actions execute. Runs can produce policy metrics, structured resource records, and logs for cloud metrics, storage, and logging services. Documented event connections include AWS CloudWatch Events and Config Rules, Azure EventGrid, and GCP AuditLog and Pub/Sub. Installation is documented for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with Docker and Kubernetes operation also described. Kubernetes, Tencent Cloud, and OpenStack support are in beta; Terraform integration is in alpha. Cloud Custodian is free at free and open source under Apache 2.0. An AWS constraint is that event-triggered policies run only in the same region and account, while periodic policies may run elsewhere.

Powerpipe is a free, open-source tool from Turbot for turning cloud infrastructure data into dashboards and security or compliance benchmarks. Prebuilt dashboards cover AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and more, with views of resource quantity, cost, usage, and relationships. Benchmarks assess environments against frameworks including CIS, GDPR, NIST, PCI, and SOC 2. Users can write dashboards and benchmarks in HCL or combine existing ones, then version and share the code using Git tooling. Powerpipe serves a locally hosted web interface for filtering, grouping, pivoting, and snapshotting results. Its CLI lists and runs benchmarks and controls, and exports results in formats such as CSV, HTML, JSON, Markdown, and ASFF. It works with PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, or DuckDB without requiring Steampipe. Installation options include macOS, Linux, and Windows; the tool can also be self-hosted. Powerpipe Hub offers hundreds of dashboards, benchmarks, and examples. Listed uses include security and compliance monitoring, cost management, detections, and asset inventory.