Digital certificates are the internet’s silent workhorses; they secure online communication, authenticate identities, and ensure data integrity. Their lifecycle is changing, however.
Currently SSL/TLS certificates’ are valid for a maximum of 398 days, or about 13 months, but those timelines are decreasing. The CA/Browser Forum recently approved a plan to cut certificate validity to 200 by March 2026, 100 days by March 2027, and finally to 47 days in March 2029.
It’s a move driven by security considerations: shorter certificate lifecycles mean threat actors will have less of an opportunity to hijack user sessions.
Simply shortening the lifespan of certificates isn’t enough, however. To limit security vulnerabilities, service outages, and compliance failures, it’s important for organizations to take a strategic approach to managing certificate lifecycles, no matter their current length.
What is Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM)?
Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) is the process of monitoring, managing, and automating the lifespan of every digital certificate within an organization’s environment. It provides a strategic framework for handling certificates from the moment of initial discovery and issuance through to their eventual renewal or revocation.
Effective CLM moves beyond reactive, ad-hoc fixes and establishes a proactive, policy-driven system. It involves using specialized tools and defined processes to gain complete visibility and control over all certificate assets, regardless of their type, location, or issuing Certificate Authority (CA). Ultimately, CLM is about transforming certificate management from a source of risk and operational friction into a streamlined, automated, and secure component of the overall cybersecurity posture.
Why Is Certificate Lifecycle Management Important?
Neglecting certificate management introduces significant risk to an organization. A robust CLM strategy is vital for mitigating these threats, which span operational stability, security integrity, and regulatory compliance. The consequences of inaction are tangible, directly impacting both the bottom line and brand reputation.
Certificate Expirations and Outages
The most immediate and disruptive consequence of poor certificate management is an unexpected expiration.
When an SSL/TLS certificate on a public-facing website or a critical internal service expires, it breaks the chain of trust. Browsers will display security warnings, APIs will fail, and services will become inaccessible. These outages lead directly to lost revenue, decreased productivity, and a severe erosion of customer confidence. According to a recent report, 81% of companies experienced a certificate-related outage in the last year, demonstrating that this is not a rare occurrence but a common and costly operational failure.
Certificate Sprawl and Lack of Visibility
Modern IT environments are incredibly diverse, spanning on-premises data centers, multiple public clouds, containerized applications, and a vast array of IoT devices. This complexity leads to “certificate sprawl,” the uncontrolled proliferation of digital certificates across the network. Without a centralized CLM system, IT and security teams are often operating in the dark. They lack a comprehensive inventory, making it impossible to answer basic questions: How many certificates do we have? Where are they installed? Who owns them? When do they expire? This lack of visibility creates critical security blind spots and makes proactive management an insurmountable task.
Security and Compliance
A mismanaged certificate portfolio is a significant security liability. Expired certificates can be a vector for attackers, while certificates using outdated cryptographic algorithms (like SHA-1) or weak key lengths are vulnerable to being compromised. Without centralized oversight, it’s difficult to enforce security policies consistently across the enterprise. Furthermore, numerous regulatory and industry standards, such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR, mandate strong data protection and encryption controls. A failure to properly manage the certificates that underpin these controls can result in failed audits, hefty fines, and significant reputational damage.
What Are the Certificate Lifecycle Stages?
An effective CLM strategy is built around a structured, cyclical process. Each stage addresses a specific aspect of a certificate’s life, and automating these stages is key to achieving a secure and efficient system.
1. Discovery and Inventory
You cannot manage what you cannot see. The discovery process involves systematically scanning the entire IT environment, including networks, servers, cloud instances, and devices, to locate every single digital certificate. The goal is to move beyond manual spreadsheets and create a dynamic, centralized inventory. This repository becomes the single source of truth, detailing critical information for each certificate, such as its common name, issuing CA, expiration date, key strength, and physical location.
2. Issuance and Enrollment
Once a need for a new certificate is identified, the issuance and enrollment stage begins. This involves generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR), submitting it to a public or private Certificate Authority for validation, and receiving the issued certificate. A mature CLM process automates these workflows, allowing administrators to request certificates through a self-service portal that enforces predefined policies. This ensures that every new certificate complies with corporate standards for key length, algorithm, and validity period from the moment it is created.
3. Deployment
After a certificate is issued, it must be correctly installed on its designated endpoint, such as a web server, load balancer, or application gateway. Manual deployment is prone to human error, leading to misconfigurations that can cause service disruptions or security vulnerabilities. CLM automation streamlines this process by securely pushing the certificate and its corresponding private key to the correct location, installing it, and binding it to the necessary services, all without manual intervention.
4. Monitoring and Validation
The lifecycle does not end after deployment. Continuous monitoring is crucial for maintaining security and operational stability. A CLM solution actively monitors the entire certificate inventory for upcoming expirations, sending automated alerts to certificate owners well in advance. It also validates configurations to detect issues like name mismatches or improper installations. Proactive oversight helps prevent unexpected outages and ensures that the organization’s trust infrastructure remains healthy and compliant.
5. Renewal
Because certificate validity periods are shortening, renewal is an increasingly frequent task. This stage involves requesting and deploying a new certificate to replace one that is nearing its expiration date. Manual renewals are a primary cause of certificate-related outages. CLM automation transforms this process into a “zero-touch” operation, where certificates are automatically renewed and deployed without requiring any human effort, ensuring seamless service continuity.
6. Revocation
Revocation is the final stage, where a certificate is permanently invalidated before its scheduled expiration date. This is a critical security action taken when a certificate’s private key is known or suspected to be compromised, or when the asset it secures is decommissioned. A CLM system facilitates immediate revocation and helps manage the distribution of revocation information through mechanisms like Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) or the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP).
Securing Web and Network Traffic with SSL/TLS Certificates
SSL/TLS certificates are the cornerstone of internet security. They perform three critical functions: encrypting data in transit to prevent eavesdropping, authenticating the identity of the server to ensure users are connecting to the legitimate site, and verifying the integrity of data to prevent tampering.
The widespread adoption of HTTPS, with 87.6% of websites now using a valid SSL certificate, underscores its fundamental role in establishing digital trust. Effective lifecycle management of these certificates is non-negotiable for any organization with a web presence, as it directly impacts security, customer trust, and even search engine rankings.
How Do Organizations Implement and Optimize a CLM Strategy?
Transitioning from manual, reactive processes to a mature, automated CLM strategy requires a deliberate and structured approach. It involves leveraging technology, refining processes, and fostering a culture of shared responsibility for digital trust.
Implement Intelligent Automation
Automation is the core principle of modern CLM. The goal is to eliminate error-prone manual tasks wherever possible. Organizations should leverage a CLM platform to automate the entire certificate lifecycle, from discovery and issuance to renewal and revocation. This “zero-touch” approach not only dramatically reduces the risk of human error-induced outages but also frees up highly skilled IT and security personnel to focus on more strategic initiatives rather than repetitive administrative tasks.
Centralize Visibility and Control
Breaking down silos is essential for effective CLM. A dedicated CLM solution provides a centralized dashboard that serves as a single source of truth for the entire certificate inventory. This unified view gives administrators complete visibility across multi-cloud and on-premises environments. It also enables the implementation of role-based access control (RBAC), allowing different teams (like network operations or application development) to manage their own certificates within the guardrails of centrally enforced corporate security policies.
Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration
Certificate management is not solely an IT security responsibility. Its impact is felt across the organization, from DevOps teams embedding certificates in CI/CD pipelines to network engineers managing load balancers and application owners ensuring their services are available. An effective CLM strategy involves creating clear lines of ownership and fostering collaboration between these teams. A centralized CLM platform can serve as a common ground, providing the necessary visibility and tools for all stakeholders to manage their respective responsibilities effectively.
Continuously Monitor and Regularly Audit Compliance
Certificate lifecycle management is not a one-time project; it is an ongoing program. Organizations must continuously monitor their environment to detect new or rogue certificates and ensure that all existing certificates remain compliant with internal policies and external regulations. Regular audits of the certificate inventory should be conducted to verify that controls are effective and to generate the necessary reports for compliance obligations. This continuous cycle of monitoring, auditing, and refinement ensures the long-term health and security of the organization’s digital trust infrastructure.
Enterprise-Grade DNS for Domain Verification and Authentication
In an era defined by digital transformation, digital certificates are the fundamental building blocks of trust and security. However, their sheer volume and diversity have rendered manual management practices obsolete and dangerous. The risks of certificate-related outages, security breaches, and compliance violations are too significant to ignore. Effective Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) provides the essential framework for navigating this complexity.
By embracing a strategic approach that prioritizes automation, centralized visibility, and cross-functional collaboration, organizations can transform certificate management from a major operational risk into a powerful security enabler.
DigiCert UltraDNS provides enterprise DNS hosting that includes authoritative DNS servers to ensure seamless and secure management of your digital infrastructure. Our DNS services are engineered as a proprietary, non-open-source solution so that you can protect against threats by leveraging publicly available information and software supply chain risks.
To learn how Vercara can help you navigate the shorter TLS certification timelines, contact us today.
