Digital certificates play a central role in enterprise security, enabling encryption, authentication, and trust between systems. However, organizations often lack visibility into where these certificates are deployed, when they expire, and whether they meet internal security policies. Without a centralized certificate management platform, you risk outages, compliance failures, and security breaches.
In this post, we explore the challenges of managing digital certificates across complex environments, how lifecycle management impacts enterprise security, and how CertAccord Enterprise by Revocent provides a centralized solution for managing the full digital certificate lifecycle.
The Hidden Risks of Poor Certificate Management
Managing certificates without full control is like navigating in the dark. Here are some of the most common and costly issues that arise:
1. Missed Expirations Lead to Downtime
An expired certificate can halt critical services, disrupt customer access, and cause major business interruptions. In 2021, several high-profile outages occurred because organizations failed to renew certificates in time. These failures were not due to technical complexity—they were due to a lack of visibility and proactive lifecycle management.
2. Shadow Certificates and Configuration Drift
Over time, certificates can be issued manually, through ad hoc scripts, or outside of standard provisioning workflows. These “shadow” certificates often go undocumented. Without centralized management, security teams can’t enforce policies or validate whether certificates use strong key lengths, appropriate signing algorithms, or trusted issuers.
3. Audit and Compliance Gaps
Organizations must meet compliance standards like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and NIST, which require certificate expiration monitoring and proper key management. Without centralized management, preparing for audits becomes a scramble, and there’s no easy way to demonstrate lifecycle management policies were enforced.
Platform Diversity Makes Certificate Management Hard
Most enterprise environments include a mix of operating systems—Windows desktops, Linux servers, macOS developer machines, cloud-native containers, and virtualized workloads. Each platform handles digital certificates in a unique way:
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Windows: Relies on Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS) and Group Policy.
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Linux: Uses OpenSSL and per-distribution trust stores with no native automation.
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macOS: Manages certificates through the Keychain with limited automation tools.
These silos create management gaps. IT teams often manage certificates on Windows but leave Linux and macOS largely unmanaged or rely on manual tracking through spreadsheets or custom scripts.
The Case for Centralized Lifecycle Management
Centralizing digital certificate management across platforms is critical for reducing operational risk and simplifying security workflows. Here’s why:
1. Certificate Policy Management
A modern digital certificate management solution must provide centralized certificate policy and configuration management allowing IT teams to effectively view and control how certificates are created. Without centralized policy management, IT teams quickly lose the ability to change and audit certificate policies leading to non-compliant certificate issuance.
2. Proactive Lifecycle Management
With automated lifecycle management, you can enforce standardized issuance policies, track usage metrics, and automate renewals before certificates expire. This avoids human error and reduces the burden on IT teams.
3. Better Security Posture
Centralized management helps enforce cryptographic standards such as minimum key lengths (2048-bit RSA or higher), approved CAs, and secure algorithms like SHA-256. You gain control over every certificate, reducing the likelihood of weak or rogue certificates slipping into production.
CertAccord Enterprise: Your Command Center for Digital Certificate Management
Revocent’s CertAccord Enterprise is purpose-built for enterprise environments that require centralized management over their digital certificate infrastructure. Unlike generic PKI tools, CertAccord Enterprise offers true cross-platform support and integrates seamlessly with existing certificate authorities.
Policy-Based Certificate Lifecycle Management
Administrators define certificate issuance and renewal policies through a web-based control panel. Policies can specify:
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Key types and lengths
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Certificate durations
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Trust stores and CAs
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Renewal timelines
CertAccord ensures that every digital certificate issued or renewed through the platform complies with these rules.
Seamless Integration with Existing PKI Infrastructure
CertAccord supports integration with:
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Microsoft AD Certificate Services (ADCS)
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Commercial cloud CA’s like GlobalSign
This means you don’t need to replace your existing PKI—you extend its management and automation through CertAccord.
Use Case: Management in a Hybrid IT Environment
Let’s consider a large financial institution that operates:
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Windows endpoints managed by Group Policy
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Linux servers running critical applications
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macOS devices used by executives and developers
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A Microsoft CA for internal certificates
Before CertAccord:
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Linux servers used manual processes to enroll in the CA
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macOS devices often used self-signed certificates
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Inventory was incomplete, and renewals were missed
After deploying CertAccord Enterprise:
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All platforms automatically enroll in a common policy
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Certificates renew automatically 30 days before expiration
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Compliance reporting is simple and reliable
Best Practices for Certificate Lifecycle Management
To build a robust certificate infrastructure, consider these practices:
1. Define Clear Lifecycle Policies
Set consistent rules for key strength, certificate validity, and allowed issuers. Apply these rules across all systems using a centralized platform.
2. Automate Where Possible
Manual renewal leads to mistakes. Automate enrollment, renewal, and revocation through lifecycle management tools like CertAccord Enterprise.
3. Integrate with Your Existing PKI
Extend the value of your existing CA infrastructure by layering automation and management tools on top.
Conclusion: Get Control of Your Digital Certificate Environment
You cannot manage what you cannot control. Without a centralized lifecycle management strategy, you expose your organization to avoidable risks.
Revocent’s CertAccord Enterprise helps enterprises bring order to PKI chaos. With full policy enforcement, and automation across Linux, macOS, and Windows systems, you gain the insight and control required to secure your digital landscape.
Learn more about how CertAccord Enterprise can improve your digital certificate management at Revocent.