Google Stackdriver Logging Extension vs Google Cloud Logging Extension

[nagendrajalapat]

Hello,

Could you help me understand the difference between Google Stackdriver Logging Extension vs Google Cloud Logging Extension and which one is preferred?

[#2]

I don't have much information on the difference. But, I have seen many organizations using Stackdriver.

[dchiesa1]

Some background

Stackdriver is the name of a company Google acquired. Stackdriver provided a logging service. Google folded Stackdriver into the Google Cloud Platform.

More recently, Google changed the name of "Stackdriver" to more accurately reflect its function: it is now Cloud Logging and Monitoring.

So I suppose (but am not certain) that the Cloud Logging extension would be more "current".

To answer your specific question: which extension should you use? My answer would be: neither.

The way extensions work: They call out to a remote bit of logic, which actually runs in Google App Engine. And then the logic in App Engine calls into some other remote system, like Stackdriver Cloud Logging. In my mind, that seems like an extra hop that is not needed, especially considering that Cloud Logging exposes an easy-to-use REST API.

An extension is a nice concept especially for a system that requires a conversation to interact with. Something that requires several calls, perhaps not over an easy-to-use REST API. Maybe something that requires computing signatures for the calls (like AWS v4 Signatures). Cloud Logging is none of that. It's easy to invoke Cloud Logging via a REST call.

Because of that, I would use a ServiceCallout to the Stackdriver Cloud Logging REST API. There are examples here on community for how to do this.