Digital certificates are everywhere today. They secure websites, protect applications, encrypt communications, and form the basis of trust between systems. Yet few organizations give much thought to managing them, at least until a certificate expires and a critical service suddenly becomes unavailable.
Time is ticking for certificates
In the coming years, the importance of certificate management will increase significantly. Major browser vendors and certificate authorities are pushing for a drastic reduction in the lifespan of public certificates. Many organizations are looking to 2029, but the first major impact will be felt much sooner. Starting March 15, 2027, public certificates will only be valid for a maximum of 100 days. By 2029, that period will be further reduced to just 47 days, causing the number of renewals to more than quadruple compared to today.
What at first glance appears to be a technical change actually has a massive impact on IT and security teams. After all, organizations will have to renew their certificates more than eight times as often as they do today. For companies that already struggle to maintain a complete overview of their certificates, this threatens to become a significant operational challenge.
Moreover, the problem is not limited to renewing certificates on time. In many large organizations, no one is entirely sure exactly how many certificates are in circulation, where they are located, or which business-critical applications depend on them. Due to the growth of cloud platforms, DevOps environments, APIs, and machine-to-machine communication, the number of certificates has skyrocketed in recent years.
Automating Certificate Lifecycle Management
As a result, certificate management is shifting from a purely operational task to a strategic security discipline. While organizations have focused for years on managing human identities and privileged accounts, there is a growing realization today that machine identities deserve the same attention. After all, certificates are nothing more than digital identities for systems, applications, and workloads.
That is precisely why more and more organizations are opting for automated Certificate Lifecycle Management. Instead of relying on spreadsheets, manual processes, or calendar reminders, certificates are automatically discovered, issued, renewed, and replaced. This not only reduces the workload for IT teams but also minimizes the risk of human error and unexpected downtime.
The technology behind CyberArk Certificate Manager has been a pioneer in this field for years. Now that CyberArk is part of Palo Alto Networks, certificate management is becoming increasingly integrated into a broader Machine Identity Security strategy. This evolution perfectly reflects what organizations need today: a single, integrated approach to securing both human and non-human identities.
Preparations start today
At ACEN, we have already helped a large number of organizations prepare for this change. Anyone who currently manages hundreds or even thousands of certificates can hardly imagine what a fourfold or even eightfold increase in the number of renewals will mean in practice. Without automation, operational costs, complexity, and the risk of incidents are likely to increase exponentially.
The transition to certificates with a 47-day validity period is therefore much more than a compliance exercise. It is a test of the IT organization’s maturity. Companies that invest today in visibility, governance, and automation will navigate this evolution seamlessly. Organizations that continue to rely on manual processes, on the other hand, risk seeing certificate management turn into a daily operational struggle.
2029 may seem far off, but preparation starts today. Because when certificates are valid for only a few weeks, automation is no longer a luxury. It becomes a necessity.
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