Google announced a new tool for its Google Cloud service called Secret Manager that helps users securely store sensitive information like API keys, passwords, certificates and other important data.

“Many applications require credentials to connect to a database, API keys to invoke a service, or certificates for authentication,” Google developer advocate Seth Vargo and product manager Matt Driscoll wrote in a blog post announcing the new tool. “Managing and securing access to these secrets is often complicated by secret sprawl, poor visibility, or lack of integrations.”

Google Cloud already offers some tools to help users manage secrets, most notably Berglas (an open-source command-line tool), and KMS (a key management system).

Both of these previously existing tools can be used in concert with Secret Manager to ensure user’s secrets are secured and easily accessible by those with the proper permissions.

Google Cloud’s major competitor Amazon’s wildly popular Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a similar tool known simply as AWS Secrets Manager.

Secret Manager is currently in beta and is available to all Google Cloud customers.

Source: TechCrunch