Greg Low offers another security option for service management:
Those who have worked with SQL Server will understand the need to avoid storing passwords for accessing resources. Windows-based identities are fine for on-premises SQL Server systems, including those on cloud-based virtual machines (VMs), but are of no use when you need to access cloud-based resources like those in Azure.
Some Azure-based resources (including storage accounts) offer other access methods, such as shared access signatures (SAS), but these aren’t much of a step-up from passwords.
What’s really needed is for SQL Server to have its own Microsoft Entra based identity. These can be used directly with Azure-based resources – and that’s exactly where managed identities come in.
Click through to see how it works. Importantly, this is a feature that requires additional payment.