Authenticate Elastic Managed integrations using cloud connectors

Cloud connector authentication for Elastic Managed integrations reduces the administrative burden of authenticating to third-party cloud service providers by eliminating the need to keep track of credentials such as API keys or passwords. Cloud connectors provide a reusable, secure-by-default means of authentication, helping you to manage deployments with many integrations collecting data from multiple cloud security providers.

In the Kibana UI, cloud connectors are labeled Federated Identity.

Cloud connector authentication currently supports deployments of Elastic's Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Asset Discovery integrations to AWS and Azure. For deployment instructions, refer to:

• Asset Discovery: Asset Discovery on Azure; Asset Discovery on AWS
• CSPM: CSPM on Azure; CSPM on AWS

Cloud connector names help you keep track of each connector's purpose and reuse it appropriately. For example, you could name two AWS connectors aws-prod and aws-testing.

When you create a new cloud connector you must name it:

• Enter the name in the Federated Identity Name field. When you're deploying an integration, select the Existing Identity tab to reuse an existing cloud connector by name.
• Enter the name in the Cloud Connector Name field. When you're deploying an integration, if you select Existing Connection, a dropdown menu with the names of existing cloud connectors appears.

To rename a connector, go to the tab that lists existing connectors and click the Edit button next to the connector's name, then enter a new name.

Because cloud connector names were introduced with Elastic Stack version 9.3, cloud connectors created in earlier versions are named automatically:

• AWS cloud connectors use their role ARN as the name.
• Azure cloud connectors use their cloud connector ID as the name.