Google Cloud Secret Manager
Google Cloud Secret Manager is a secure and centralized service for storing, managing, and accessing sensitive data such as API keys, passwords, and certificates on the Google Cloud Platform. It provides versioning, audit logging, and integration with other Google Cloud services to help protect secrets throughout their lifecycle. Developers can use it to avoid hardcoding secrets in application code or configuration files.
Developers should use Google Cloud Secret Manager when building applications on Google Cloud that require secure handling of credentials, especially in cloud-native, microservices, or CI/CD environments. It is essential for compliance with security best practices, enabling secrets rotation, and providing fine-grained access control through IAM policies. Use cases include storing database passwords, API keys for third-party services, and TLS certificates for applications deployed on Google Kubernetes Engine or Cloud Run.