Secrets are referred to as any private piece of information used to unlock critical and protected assets. Secrets include usernames, passwords, certificates, API keys, Secure Socket Shell (SSH) keys, and encryption keys.

Secrets management allows organizations to create, store and manage access to resources across tool stacks, platforms, and cloud environments.

A set of protocols are used to authenticate and authorize non-human identities to access secrets. For improved security, there's role-based access control (RBAC) enforcement model.

Organizations can deploy secrets management automation and ensure standardization of policies.

They can regularly rotate secrets and maintain an exhaustive, tamper-proof audit to track all access. Secrets management enables organizations to block the exposure of secrets by deleting them from software code and configuration files.

An ideal solution offers a single centralized platform to securely store, control, and manage secrets outside the source code in a FIPS 140-2 level 3 certified HSM.

It must have flexible deployment modes and scalable architecture, that works across different environments, and integrates with any DevOps environment with Rest APIs.