Digital certificates enable encryption during data transmissions and provide authentication for servers, browsers, applications, systems, or devices. They encrypt your emails, transactions, database traffic, web connections with IoT (Internet of Things) devices, and more.
Organizations need to issue tens of thousands of certificates to protect and authenticate their employee’s devices, servers, and cloud storage systems, as well as manage each of these installed certificates. Dealing with numerous types of digital certificates, including types of SSL certificates, managing their lifecycle phases, and implementation is next to impossible.
The Need for Certificate Managers
Security certificate management systems offer the best solution of an automated system that efficiently manages the certificates, keeps track, monitors, revokes, or renews the certificates on time. It prevents security failures caused by faulty, expired, or unused certificates, communicates with CAs (Certificate Authority), and complies with security policies.
To effectively execute such a heavy, complex, and important task, most businesses need to find a trusted certificate manager. A tool that highly contributes to the overall cybersecurity strategy of an organization. Sectigo’s certificate management systems offer comprehensive solutions along with advanced PKI management tools that ensure an overall smooth security operation.
Choose The Right Certificate Management System for Your Business
Here are some factors to consider when choosing a certificate manager:
Robust Security
Does the certificate management system use secure and trusted technology to store, verify and protect credentials? The entire purpose of managing certificates is to provide the highest level of security and so the system that you choose should have the strongest authentication, encryption, and audit trails to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks and other security compromises.
What types of digital certificates do they offer, and what do they protect? Examine the website to go over everything they offer.
Integration and Customizable
The certificate manager should be able to seamlessly integrate with the systems you use for simpler and centralized functionality.
Another factor is how tailor-fitted the system can be to your business’s needs. The system should be able to cater to your specific business needs.
Pricing
Lastly, the system should be reasonably priced. Are any features of management free? Are any certificates discounted? Are they transparent with their pricing schemes? Do they charge per certificate or per cycle? It is always a good sign when companies offer a trial period for you to determine if the system suits your enterprise. Negotiation with certificate management companies is encouraged as well.
Here are some questions businesses must ask to find their perfect fit:
- Does the system run on private or public clouds as a SaaS? Or is it a downloadable software? Or does it offer both?
- Does the tool give out certificates for all kinds of sub-domains or wildcard domains?
- Does the system discover and manage all your certificate across all your infrastructure? Can the system create and organize a certificate inventory?
- How many CAs can the system work with? Can they recognize and deal with multiple certificates from different CAs
- Is the management of certificates fully automated? Any new management policies they comply with?
- Is the system part of a suite or a standalone system?
Level Up Security With the Right Certificate Manager
As a business scales, so does its use of connected devices, employees, customers, online data storage, transmissions, and transactions, leading to an undeniable need for security certificates. Properly managing these certificates is imperative to prevent data breaches, thefts, and considerable losses in customers, sales, and brand value, not to mention handling damage control and compensations.
Hence, choosing the right automated certificate management system has to be done smartly. Sectigo’s certificate management solutions can assist businesses in their cybersecurity efforts. Contact them today.
