Blog Post Jul 18, 2024

Why SSL certificate renewal automation is essential for businesses of all sizes

Automating SSL certificate renewals is essential for businesses of all sizes to avoid outages and security risks associated with expired certificates. The renewal process can be complex and time-consuming, especially for organizations with large or intricate IT infrastructures. With upcoming changes reducing SSL certificate validity periods to 90 days, the need for efficient renewal processes is even more critical. Automated SSL renewal solutions offer significant benefits, including preventing expirations, saving time, and ensuring accuracy. Sectigo’s Certificate Manager Pro provides a comprehensive, automated solution to manage and renew SSL certificates seamlessly, enhancing security and reducing administrative burdens.

1. Understanding SSL certificates

2. The importance of SSL certificate renewal

3. How to automate SSL certificate renewals

4. Automate SSL certificate renewals with Sectigo

SSL/TLS certificates form the basis of modern web security, and yet, far too many businesses regularly suffer certificate outages. Certificate expiration most often occurs due to short-sighted or otherwise ineffective renewal strategies.

Businesses of all sizes and across all industries are vulnerable to certificate renewal challenges. The renewal process can be time-consuming in general, but when large organizations require a large number of certificates (and they are part of a complex IT infrastructure), it can be difficult for IT teams to keep up. Unfortunately, small and mid-sized businesses are not immune to these issues either with the upcoming change to decrease SSL certificate validity periods to only 90 days. The shorter validity period combined with the fact that SMBs sometimes lack IT expertise means businesses of this size may be even more vulnerable to outages and expired certificates.

The good news? Certificate outages are far from inevitable. Automated certificate renewals can help to bypass major risks, ensuring that all SSL certificates remain up to date. Keep reading to learn what this involves, why it is necessary for everyone from small to enterprise-level businesses, and what benefits one can expect upon implementing an automated certificate renewal approach.

Understanding SSL certificates

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) / Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates play a fundamental role in facilitating secure web communications. These certificates encrypt data that is exchanged between web servers and browsers, thereby protecting this data from interference from bad actors. Additionally, SSL certificates authenticate identities to confirm the users interact with legitimate websites.

Many types of SSL certificates exist, all of which is to safeguard digital communication and improve digital trust. There are three different certificate validation levels available:

Domain Validation (DV). Quickest, easiest, and most cost-effective way to receive industry-standard encryption. This validation type requires proof of ownership for the secured domain and is typically issued within minutes

Organization Validation (OV). Encompassing a slightly more extensive approach to validation, OV determines the legitimacy of the business associated with a given domain. This produces a higher level of trust.

Extended Validation (EV). As the most thorough form of validation, EV certificates call for in-depth measures to verify everything from an organization’s legal existence to its physical location. This type is the industry standard for eCommerce websites.

Within these validation levels, different variations of certificates are available including single domain, wildcard, and multi-domain certificates. Also, a multi-domain certificates makes it possible for a single certificate to secure several domains. Meanwhile, wildcard certificates are designed to secure one main domain along with an unlimited number of subdomains under that main domain.

Currently, certificates can remain valid for up to 397 days following initial issuance. Validity periods are about to change, however, and the process of keeping up with renewals will become far more difficult when anticipated 90-day validity periods arrive. To avoid having SSL certificates that reach their expiration date, organizations need to start preparing now by implementing targeted strategies including automatic certificate renewal.

The importance of SSL certificate renewal

Renewal plays a critical role in the overarching certificate lifecycle. Typically, this is the final phase before the entire cycle starts over again.

If certificates are not renewed in a timely manner, they will expire, , which dramatically increase the likelihood of devastating service disruptions/operations, customer/brand reputation, and in some cases, lead to security breaches.

While there are many ways to handle certificate renewal, many small to medium sized businesses still rely on manual processes, which tend to be cumbersome and prone to errors. Automatic SSL certificate renewal solutions are available, however, and can help mitigate the many risks associated with manual renewal and expired certificates. This is particularly important in light of aforementioned upcoming changes to validity periods, as it will dramatically take more time and effort to keep expiring certificates up to date.

Benefits of automated renewal

The renewal step is an extremely important phase in the overall certificate lifecycle management (CLM) process. When considering an automated SSL renewal service, look for a solution that’s reliable, cost-effective, scalable, and versatile. Advantages of implementing this type of automation include:

Avoiding expiration. Between overburdened IT staff and escalating SSL certificate validity reduction, it can be easy to fall behind with existing certificates. What's more, some organizations may struggle with certificate visibility and may be incapable of determining which certificates require renewal in the first place. This can lead to expirations, which risk service disruptions and compromise data integrity. Automated solutions, however, ensure that certificates are promptly renewed, thereby dramatically reducing the risk of outages.

Considerable time savings. Manual renewal processes are time-consuming in the best of circumstances, but this reality has only become more significant as IT environments have grown more complex. These days, it is incredibly difficult to keep up with manual renewals, especially when these involve hundreds (possibly thousands) of certificates distributed across vast networks or originating from a variety of Certificate Authorities (CAs). Automatic solutions expedite this process, freeing up busy IT professionals to focus on other critical matters.

Greater accuracy. Even the most skilled IT professionals can be prone to human errors, and with complex processes such as certificate discovery and renewal, such errors are especially likely. Automated systems are known for their accuracy and, as a result, provide maximum peace of mind.

Simply put, automatic renewals are worthwhile because they enhance the overall cybersecurity posture of a business. Breaches and other security concerns can be costly, leading not only to significant downtime but also major reputational damage. This can be downright devastating for small and midsize businesses, which work hard to develop goodwill among their customers and may struggle to earn back their trust after breaches have occurred.

How to automate SSL certificate renewals

Automation renewals promises numerous benefits, but the solution you use to automate this process matters. The first step is choosing a platform, and choosing the right one is essential.

Ideally, automated SSL renewal services will offer a range of features, including automated processes that span the entire certificate lifecycle—from discovery to renewal and everything in between. The best platforms also offer seamless technology integrations, which allow them to function with ease in a business’s current IT environment. Notifications are also essential, as these ensure that emerging concerns with any digital certificates (like the need for revocation) are handled quickly—before significant downtime becomes a problem.

Sectigo offers a trusted solution that automates not only certificate renewals but also other critical component of the certificate lifecycle: discovery, provisioning, deployment, and more. Sectigo Certificate Manager (SCM) Pro is a comprehensive solution designed to streamline and automate the entire lifecycle of digital certificates. This powerful tool provides businesses with the ability to manage, monitor, and renew SSL certificates automatically. With its advanced automation capabilities, this platform significantly reduces the administrative burden on SMBs and IT teams, allowing them to focus on more strategic initiatives while ensuring continuous protection.

Automate SSL certificate renewals with Sectigo

Ready to stop worrying about the looming risk of certificate expiration? Sectigo's Certificate Manager Pro automates the renewal process to make outages a thing of the past. Our system harnesses the power of the Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME) to streamline a variety of certificate management essentials—including time-consuming certificate renewals.

If you are ready to leverage automation and skip the hassles and risk of manual certificate management, don't hesitate to reach out to Sectigo. Start your free trial today and discover the power of automated SSL certificate renewal.