Azure Entra Managed Identities provide a secure, seamless way for Azure resources to authenticate to other Azure services and APIs without needing secrets, credentials, or stored connection strings.
Instead of managing passwords or rotating keys, the identity is fully handled by Azure—reducing risk, improving security posture, and simplifying authentication workflows.
Managed identities are service identities created and managed by Azure Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). They allow Azure-hosted applications, services, and workloads to obtain tokens for authentication using Microsoft Entra without storing credentials in code, configuration, or Key Vault.
Key benefits include:
No secrets or credentials to manage
Automatic credential rotation handled by Azure
Tight integration with Azure RBAC and Access Policies
Simplified, secure authentication to Azure services
Typical use cases include accessing Azure Key Vault, Azure Storage, Azure SQL, Event Hubs, Service Bus, and REST APIs.
Azure Entra Managed Identities come in two forms:
Created directly on an Azure resource (e.g., VM, App Service, Function)
Lifecycle is tied to that resource
Deleted automatically when the resource is deleted
Each resource can only have one system-assigned identity
Best for single-resource authentication scenarios.
Created as a standalone Azure resource
Can be assigned to one or many resources
Lifecycle is independent of any resource
Can be centrally managed and reused
Best for shared authentication or multi-resource architectures.
|
System-Assigned |
User-Assigned |
|---|---|
| Created with resource itself | Manually created as separate resource |
| Deletes with resource | Independent of resources |
| Assigned to single resource | Assigned to one or many resources |
| Not shared | Shared |
| Low management overhead | Medium management overhead |
| Best for single-resource workloads | Best for shared or enterprise setups |
Managed identities are supported across many Azure services. Common usage patterns include:
Enable a managed identity on your resource
Assign a role (e.g., Storage Blob Data Reader)
The resource authenticates using the managed identity token
No passwords, certificates, or stored secrets required.
Instead of storing secrets in app settings:
Grant the managed identity Key Vault Access Policy or RBAC role
The application requests a token and retrieves secrets securely
Managed identities work seamlessly with:
Azure Storage (Blobs, Queues, Tables)
Azure SQL Database
Event Hub & Service Bus
Microsoft Graph & custom APIs
Any service that supports Microsoft Entra authentication can trust a managed identity.
Azure Entra Managed Identities eliminate the need for application credentials by providing secure, automatically-managed identities for Azure resources.
They come in two types: System-Assigned and User-Assigned
System-Assigned identities are tied to a single resource
User-Assigned identities are reusable and centrally managed
They simplify authentication and significantly reduce secret-management risk
If you’re building secure cloud applications on Azure, managed identities are one of the most powerful—and safest—ways to authenticate your workloads.