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Cloud Computing · Intermediate

Managed Identity

Automatically managed Entra ID identity for Azure resources, letting code authenticate to services without stored credentials.

Definition

A system-assigned managed identity is tied to one resource's lifecycle and deleted with it; a user-assigned managed identity is a standalone resource that can be shared by multiple resources. Applications obtain tokens from the local endpoint and access services such as Key Vault, Storage and SQL using Azure RBAC.

Example

An App Service web app uses its system-assigned managed identity to read secrets from Key Vault with no connection strings.

Exam tip

Managed identities eliminate secrets in code; choose user-assigned when several resources need the same identity or the identity must persist.

Related terms