The Secure Store service can be referred to as a core service because several other services require this service to be set up and configured in order to function. A part of its offering is a secure database that stores credentials associated with application IDs. These IDs are used to access content from external data sources. This is accomplished by creating unattended accounts that are stored within the Secure Store database. An example of this will be seen in an upcoming recipe with Excel Services configuration. The Secure Store will be used to house the ID that will access the data sources that the dashboards will display. These are external data sources such as SQL Server or SAP. MOSS 2007 also provided this functionality through the use of the application proxy ID. The problem with this scenario is that it does not follow the least privileged account rules.
SharePoint 2010 uses the new Secure Store and a completely separate ID from the proxy. This means now...
