AWS Secrets Manager
AWS Secrets Manager is a fully managed service that helps you securely store, manage, and retrieve sensitive information such as database credentials, API keys, and other secrets throughout their lifecycle. It enables automatic rotation of secrets, reducing the risk of exposure and simplifying compliance with security standards. The service integrates with other AWS services and applications to provide centralized secrets management.
Developers should use AWS Secrets Manager when building applications on AWS that require secure handling of sensitive credentials, especially for compliance-driven environments like finance or healthcare. It's ideal for automating secret rotation in databases (e.g., RDS) and services, reducing manual overhead and enhancing security by minimizing hardcoded secrets in code or configuration files.