What service collects operational data in the form of logs, metrics, and events for applications?

Amazon CloudWatch is the service designed to collect and monitor operational data in the form of logs, metrics, and events for applications and infrastructure within the AWS environment. It allows users to gain insights into their application performance, operational health, and overall system status. By aggregating data from different AWS services and custom applications, CloudWatch provides visibility into the application's operational metrics, which can be used for real-time monitoring, automated resource scaling, and even triggering alarms for specific operational conditions.

Moreover, CloudWatch integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, enabling users to create dashboards and visualizations, set alarms for specific thresholds, and collect logs for deeper analysis. This functionality is critical for maintaining the health of applications and responding effectively to operational issues.

In contrast, while Amazon GuardDuty is focused on threat detection and continuous monitoring for malicious activities, Amazon Inspector is primarily a security assessment service that checks applications for vulnerabilities. AWS Shield offers protection against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, rather than operational insight. Each of these services plays a specific role in AWS security and management, but they do not provide the broad spectrum of operational data collection that Amazon CloudWatch does.