Sectigo Rolls Out Certificate-As-A-Service For Managing Certificate Complexity

As certificates get shorter lifetimes, managing them becomes more difficult.

Sectigo, a company that provides digital certificate lifecycle management solutions, recently announced its Certificate-as-a-Service (CaaS) offering.

Digital certificates are essential for organizations to establish secured and trusted connections for websites, devices, web servers, code, software, email and more. They are a key component of modern cybersecurity.

Complications come into play when it comes to managing the sometimes-vast number of certificates the typical IT department must handle.

This is the reason why digital certificate management is a growing industry. According to one industry report, the global digital certificate management market is projected to reach $1.08 billion in 2029, more than double the $548.2 million market in 2022.

Complicating certificate management is the introduction of short-lived certificates. In January, Apple proposed reducing the validity period for TLS/SSL certificates from the current 398 days to just 45 days. In an October 2024 blog post, Google said it was exploring the idea of shortening certificate validity to 90 days.

"Ephemeral certificates” expire in about five minutes, according to SSH Academy. They offer more robust security, supporting zero-trust and the Just-in-Time authentication methodologies. As more organizations adopt ephemeral certificates, it becomes an even greater challenge with certificate management.

The goal of shortened certificate validity is to heighten security. But, doing so means more certificates for IT to manage.

Sectigo’s CaaS platform is targeted to SSL/PKI resellers, domain registrars, web hosts, and managed service providers (MSPs). The service “enables partners to future-proof their customers’ certificate needs by administering – under a single API – automated certificate lifecycle management and domain validation procedures,” according to a Sectigo blog post.

"By transitioning from a per-certificate pricing model to a predictable, scalable, per-domain subscription model, partners can now efficiently manage large volumes of certificates across multiple customers and significantly reduce operational overhead for their customers," said Jairo Fraile, vice president of global partner sales at Sectigo, in a statement. "This shift allows our partners to scale their certificate business profitably while ensuring their customers maintain continuous security coverage."

“We want to support our customers in reducing the risk of service outages caused by expired certificates and simplifying the certificate management process,” said Tatsuo Osaka, chief executive officer at Nijimo Inc., a reseller of SSL certificates, in a statement. “Sectigo CaaS eliminates human error in certificate renewals, minimizes downtime due to expired certificates, and provides a seamless, automated solution that enables our customers to focus on their core business operations.”