Azure Bastion vs Azure Key Vault comparison

Azure Bastion is a service you deploy that lets you connect to a virtual machine using your browser and the Azure portal. The Azure Bastion service is a fully platform-managed PaaS service that you provision inside your virtual network. It provides secure and seamless RDP/SSH connectivity to your virtual machines directly from the Azure portal over TLS. When you connect via Azure Bastion, your virtual machines do not need a public IP address, agent, or special client software.

Microsoft Azure Key Vault is a cloud-based data security and storage service that allows users to keep their secrets safe from bad actors.

Benefits of Microsoft Azure Key Vault

Some of the benefits of using Microsoft Azure Key Vault include:

• Secure your secrets in a single central location, enabling you to control how your information is disseminated.

• Keep your data away from bad actors. Application administrators can store their application’s security information away from the actual application. Microsoft Azure Key Vault reduces the chance that a bad actor will be able to leak an application’s secrets. Because the data is not stored in the code of the application, hackers will be unable to steal the security information.

• Retrieve your information securely. When the information is needed, the application can securely retrieve it by using a uniform resource identifier (URI) to connect to Microsoft Azure Key Vault.

• Securely store your digital keys and secrets. Microsoft Azure Key Vault stores data behind layers of security protocol. No one can access the information stored in a Microsoft Azure Key Vault without first obtaining the necessary authentication and authorization. The authentication process allows the system to figure out who is trying to access the vault in question. This process is performed by Azure’s Active Directory. After the person or entity is authenticated, Microsoft Azure Key Vault then assigns them a level of authorization. This determines what sort of actions they will be able to perform.

• Choose from two different authorization options. The level of a user’s authorization can be either role-based or dictated by a policy that the administrator sets. Azure’s role-based access control (Azure RBAC) enables users to both manage and access stored data. A key vault access policy limits users to data access.

• Secure your data in the way that best fits your needs. Your data can be protected by either industry-standard algorithm software or hardware security modules (HSMs). Your data is even safe from Microsoft, as the vaults are designed so that not even Microsoft can get in and access the information.

• Easily monitor who accesses your vault(s). Microsoft Azure Key Vault enables administrators to keep a close eye on their secrets. Users can activate a vault-logging feature that will track every piece of information. It will record who accessed the vault, when they accessed it, and other pertinent details.

• Choose how you want to store your logs. Users can store logs in multiple ways. These logs can be archived, sent to the Azure monitor logs area, or streamed to an events hub. The logs can be secured to prevent unauthorized viewing and deleted when they are no longer needed.

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Azure Key Vault stands out among their competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are the overall robustness of the solution and its ability to protect and manage many different digital asset types. The many features that the solution offers allows users to tailor their experience to meet their specific needs. Its flexibility enables users to accomplish a wide variety of security and identity management related tasks. It empowers users to secure a wide array of assets. Users can keep many different types of secrets away from bad actors.

A cloud architect at a marketing services firm writes, “All its features are really valuable. It's really well thought-out. It's a complete turnkey solution that has all the concerns taken care of, such as access control and management. You can use it in infrastructure as code to create key vaults, APIs, PowerShells, CLIs, even Terraform. You can also use it in different services across the board. If you have app services, or virtual machines, Kubernetes, or Databricks, they can all use Key Vault effectively. In my opinion, in a DevSecOps, DevOps, or even in a modern Azure implementation, you have to use Azure Key Vault to make sure you're addressing security and identity management concerns. By "identity" I mean usernames, passwords, cryptography, etcetera. It's a full-blown solution and it supports most breeds of key management: how you store keys and certify.”

Roger L., the managing director of Cybersecurity Architecture at Peloton Systems, says, “The most valuable aspect of the product is its ability to keep our admin password accounts for keys and a lot of our high-value assets. It can manage those types of assets. So far, the product does a great job of managing keys.”