What is a cloud-resource identifier?¶

A cloud-resource identifier is the provider's value for a particular object, such as a file, folder, mailbox, virtual machine or storage container. It is usually a safer way to follow an object through logs than its visible name, which may be duplicated or changed.

Record identity and display name together¶

An audit event may name Quarterly report.docx, but that label does not distinguish two files with the same name. Preserve the exact resource ID alongside the displayed name, service, tenant, parent ID and event source. Long numeric values should be stored as text so spreadsheets do not round them.

Provider identifiers can occupy different scopes. An ID may be unique globally, only within one tenant, or only within a parent container. A version ID may identify one state of a file while the resource ID continues across edits.

Test what survives a change¶

Renaming or moving an object may retain its ID, allowing events before and after the change to be joined. Copying, restoring, migrating or recreating it may produce a new ID even where the content and name appear identical. Conversely, old and current versions may share the main resource ID.

Use audit logs, version history and export documentation to establish the provider's behaviour rather than assuming every service works alike. Where two services expose different identifiers for the same content, preserve the mapping and its source.