What is the primary function of AWS Secrets Manager?

AWS Secrets Manager is primarily designed to protect access to applications by securely managing and storing sensitive information, such as passwords, API keys, and database credentials. It allows users to safely retrieve these secrets through API calls, which aids in maintaining security as application codes can leverage these credentials without hardcoding them. This service also includes features such as automatic rotation of secrets, which adds an additional layer of security by ensuring that credentials remain up-to-date and are not exposed for extended periods.

While scheduling backups is critical for data recovery, that function is more appropriately handled by services like AWS Backup or Amazon S3 lifecycle policies. Automating deployments is typically the concern of services such as AWS CodeDeploy or AWS CloudFormation, which focus on infrastructure management and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) processes. Monitoring tools are provided by services like Amazon CloudWatch, which help in observing resource usage and performance metrics rather than managing sensitive credentials. Therefore, the primary role of AWS Secrets Manager is centered on the secure management of access credentials, making it a crucial component in maintaining application security.