What is it?
Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that helps securely store and manage sensitive information like secrets, keys, and certificates. It ensures that sensitive data like passwords, API keys, or database connection strings are protected and accessed only by authorized services.
Simple Example: Imagine you are working on an application that needs to connect to a database. Instead of hardcoding the database password in your code, you can store the password in Azure Key Vault. Your application will securely fetch the password from Key Vault when needed, reducing the risk of exposing sensitive information.
Steps:
- Store a secret in Azure Key Vault, for example, a database connection string.
- Your application or service (like Azure Data Factory) can be configured to access that secret during execution.
Example Scenario:
- You have an application that connects to a SQL database.
- Instead of storing the SQL connection string in the code, you store it in Azure Key Vault.
- The application uses its identity to securely retrieve the connection string from Key Vault whenever it needs to connect to the database.
Azure Key Vault ensures that sensitive information (like credentials) used in the data pipeline is stored securely.
