Managing Application Configuration and Secrets in Azure

Configuration is an important aspect of determining an application’s behavior. Settings files often include sensitive information like passwords and API keys. In this lesson, we will look at how to protect that sensitive information while the app is being developed and when it is in production.

Azure’s App Configuration Service allows you to manage access to settings data and we will see how to use it within a .Net application. We will look at using Azure Key Vault in conjunction with App Configuration Service, and how to access Azure Key Vault directly from your application and from apps running in a container within a Kubernetes cluster.

Next, we look at the idea of shifting left security testing within your development process, and how we can automate security testing as part of implementing a compliant development process. Much of this will involve using extensions from the Azure marketplace within your DevOps build pipeline.

This lesson contains numerous demonstrations from the Azure platform so that you can get a first-hand look at the topics we will be covering. If you have any feedback relating to this lesson, please contact us at support@cloudacademy.com.

Learning Objectives

• Learn about app configuration
• Run and deploy apps with the Azure App Configuration service
• Use Azure Key Vault to store secrets and certificates
• Access Key Vault directly from your apps, including those running within a Kubernetes cluster
• Create a compliant development process by integrating code analyzers, branch policies, quality gates, open-source library scanning, and automated penetration into a build pipeline

Intended Audience

• Intermediate-level developers, DevOps engineers, and product managers
• Anyone interested in learning how to implement secure app configurations and development pipelines

Prerequisites

To get the most out of this lesson, you should have some pre-existing knowledge of software development and of using Microsoft Azure.