AWS Secrets Manager Reviews

Name: AWS Secrets Manager
Brand: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Rating: 4.4 (13 reviews)

Vendor: Amazon Web Services (AWS)

4.4 out of 5

13 reviews
100% willing to recommend

183 followers

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What is AWS Secrets Manager?

AWS Secrets Manager helps you protect secrets needed to access your applications, services, and IT resources. The service enables you to easily rotate, manage, and retrieve database credentials, API keys, and other secrets throughout their lifecycle.

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AWS Secrets Manager is the #2 ranked solution in top Enterprise Password Managers. PeerSpot users give AWS Secrets Manager an average rating of 8.8 out of 10. Based on the analysis of the 13 most recent AWS Secrets Manager reviews, the overall sentiment is positive, with a sentiment score of 7.5. AWS Secrets Manager is most commonly compared to CyberArk Privileged Access Manager: AWS Secrets Manager vs CyberArk Privileged Access Manager. AWS Secrets Manager is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 67% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a computer software company, accounting for 16% of all views.

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Enterprise Password Managers

November 2024

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Featured reviews

ManuelTorres

Cyber security senior engineer at International Airlines Group (IAG)

AWS Secrets Manager has streamlined our processes for managing secrets and their lifecycle. We typically handle everything through automation, following a predefined approach. When we undertake our developments, we seamlessly integrate the process into our workflows. Essentially, our secrets require minimal intervention; they are automatically managed by the system itself. This ensures smooth operations without the need for manual intervention. We integrate this tool with various AWS services, utilizing AWS Secrets Manager specifically for AWS resources. Any application, service, or deployment within AWS leverages Secrets Manager whenever it requires access to it.

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Vladimir Shilov

DevSecOps at Ciklum ApS

For those considering AWS Secrets Manager, I recommend leveraging its secure and easy-to-use features for storing and managing secrets. Since AWS doesn't have a direct alternative, it is a solid choice for enhancing security in applications. Before starting, ensure a clear understanding of your application's secret management needs to make the most of this tool.

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Prasanth MG

Software Engineer at Readyly

Even though I said that the employee or programmer doesn't need to see the secret, he can view the secret if he intends to. He just has to display the value he fetched from the AWS Secrets Manager. The solution should add one more layer of encoding and decoding so that when the programmer fetches the value from the AWS Secrets Manager, what he receives is only an encoded version. Instead of directly sending it to Google, he sends the authentication information to another AWS service which decodes it and then sends it to Google. If you add one more layer of security to AWS Secrets Manager, even the programmer will not be able to see the secrets.

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AWS Secrets Manager mindshare

As of December 2024, the mindshare of AWS Secrets Manager in the Enterprise Password Managers category stands at 24.0%, up from 23.6% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Password Managers

Key learnings from peers

Last updated Dec 17, 2024

Valuable Features

AWS Secrets Manager's valuable features include usability and intuitive design. It integrates seamlessly with AWS workloads and offers robust security for secret data management. Users highlight its ability to store key-value pairs, assign access permissions, and support credential rotation with Lambda. Access control improves flexibility for development teams. It's cost-effective, protects critical environments, and interacts well with programming languages like Python and Java. It also eliminates the need for additional vaults.

"Secrets Manager helps in retrieving the enrollment variables used by the code."
"Integrating with other services was straightforward, especially within the AWS environment."
"The most valuable feature of AWS Secrets Manager is its seamless integration with various AWS services."

Room for Improvement

AWS Secrets Manager could benefit from more customization options. Users experience rate limit issues and find enterprise support lacking without an umbrella plan. The sidecar feature needs enhancement and pricing is a concern. Improved environmental security implementation and hybrid infrastructure support is desired. Additional integration with non-AWS services like Azure, Jenkins, and enhanced secret encoding features for programmers are needed. Users seek more automated secret rotation and compatibility across diverse platforms. Expanding integration with CI/CD pipelines would be valuable.

"There is a potential improvement in connecting AWS Secrets Manager to Jenkins CI/CD pipeline to automatically reflect changes in production."
"There is room for improvement in terms of integrating with certain other platforms."
"An area for improvement in AWS Secrets Manager could be expanding integration options beyond AWS services."

ROI

Pricing

Enterprise users report that while AWS Secrets Manager uses a per-secret-per-month pricing model, costs can escalate with frequent use or when managing numerous secrets. Many opt to consolidate secrets to manage expenses. Though some find the cost complex and high, others perceive it as reasonable, especially for occasional use. Regional pricing variations exist, with lower prices observed in Bahrain compared to Mumbai. Overall, users suggest evaluating based on usage patterns and regional considerations.

"The cost is somewhat high."
"We purchase a monthly license for the product."
"The solution is expensive."

Popular Use Cases

AWS Secrets Manager is leveraged to store and manage sensitive information, including application secrets and credentials for system-to-system interactions. Organizations utilize it for handling confidential tasks, protecting card data, and storing secrets for microservice infrastructure. It facilitates secure storage with automatic encryption, allowing for orchestrated management of platforms. Users often rely on AWS Identity and Access Management for setting access rules, ensuring managed and minimized administrative handling of secrets.

Service and Support

AWS Secrets Manager support is generally rated positively by users, particularly those with enterprise accounts, who receive significant assistance. Many users highlight the responsiveness and professionalism of the technical support team. Users without enterprise accounts may experience limited support. Some rely on documentation for assistance, while others maintain weekly interaction with a dedicated TAM. Past experiences indicate helpfulness in addressing functionality questions, and there's acknowledgment of technical support’s investigative thoroughness. AWS support is described as satisfactory across their offerings.

Deployment

Many users describe AWS Secrets Manager's initial setup as straightforward and uncomplicated. The process doesn't involve complex installation, with some mentioning it as out-of-the-box. Most note that deployment is quick, often taking minutes, although one mentions needing ten days in specific environments with Terraform support. Users often highlight the simplicity, rating the process highly, while a few consider it more complex, rating it lower. Integration within AWS environments is seen as smooth.

Scalability

AWS Secrets Manager is consistently regarded as highly scalable by various users, with ratings often reaching nine or ten out of ten. Many acknowledge that scalability is inherent to AWS-managed services, and others anticipate increased usage as their platforms grow. Some users have not fully tested scalability due to current low demands. Most do not report any issues, reflecting a confidence in its scalable capabilities to handle varying numbers of users and deployments.

Stability

AWS Secrets Manager is considered stable by many users. Several have not experienced any issues, citing smooth operations with extensive API integrations. Some rate its stability as perfect or near-perfect, with scores ranging from seven to ten. While package alignment and service downtime bugs have been mentioned, these appear infrequent. Occasionally, rate limit problems are noted, but familiarity with AWS Secrets Manager tends to resolve initial usability challenges.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

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