If you’re like most, you’re probably already hearing this question with increasing frequency within the walls of your organization. If not, you should be the one asking it. And also asking the fundamental questions every business needs to answer: “What is the impact of 90-Day certificates on our business?” and “How should we manage the change to the 90-Day TLS certificate standard?”
But why start Now? Why not wait?
The simple fact is that your ability to successfully transition to the 90-Day TLS standard depends on your ability to closely coordinate people, processes and technology. This takes time. Change management takes time.
Google understands this. When they proposed in March of 2023 to shorten certificate lifespans to 90 days, there were lots of reasons based on security and other factors. But the one you should be most concerned with is time. The industry is giving you time to get ready for 90-day certificates.
Do you have the time you need to get your organization 90-Day Ready?
Before you can answer that, you must answer: How much time do you need to get 90-day ready? And answer: What does it mean to be 90-day ready, so our organization isn’t exposed to potentially 5x the outages on cutover day? What about any capability gaps? What does the roadmap need to look like?
Start the research. Start the planning. There will be nothing worse than waking up to a 90-day go-live date announcement, only to later find that your organization does not have the time it needs to implement this transformational change broadly across your organization so that it can succeed.
That’s because certificate lifecycle automation for shorter lifespan certificates is more than just a collection of technologies that enable more frequent renewals. It’s also a discipline that your organization needs to adopt to guarantee success in the impending world of 90-day certificates. Automating the lifecycle of TLS certificates is vital for enterprises to efficiently manage and renew certificates. Without automation, you’ll be hard pressed to establish an accurate certificate inventory, mitigate outage risks, enhance security posture, and ensure organizational agility to swiftly adapt to changing needs and future challenges like post-quantum cryptography.
But if you don’t complement significant changes in your certificate lifecycle automation strategy with equally significant changes in your processes—including re-education of certificate owners—you’re not going to make the headway you need to succeed. Preparing your organization to successfully implement and organizationally deploy critical 90-day automations requires a detailed roadmap, visibility to eliminate outages, process and policy reviews, and clear roles and responsibilities.
This multifaceted challenge amplifies with organizational size and involves more than just technical steps—it encompasses the entire Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), including policies, hardware and software. But it also requires participation across an even wider range of teams and certificate owners and consumers. Successfully automating the renewal of TLS certificates before the 90-day TLS standard arrives requires that your organization overcome a series of intricate challenges to ensure seamless, secure certificate management and renewal processes now and well into the future.
The industry’s only comprehensive solution to migrate to shorter certificate lifespans
To help our customers successfully navigate the transition to shorter certificate lifespans across people, process and technology, Venafi has just released our comprehensive 90-Day TLS Readiness solution that is powered by Venafi’s Control Plane for Machine Identities.
In this industry-first end-to-end solution, products and services work hand in hand to assure that you have the technology and processes you need to successfully transition to 90-day certificates.
The solution combines Venafi Professional Services with Venafi TLS Protect to deliver full visibility and control over TLS certificates across environments, proactively identify and map TLS certificate across the organization—providing a comprehensive certificate inventory and renewal schedules—and to automate the entire lifecycle management of TLS certificates.
The solution enhances security posture and supports digital transformation by integrating with various environments, simplifying certificate management and preventing outages. To complement that, Venafi Professional Services further ensures readiness through tailored support across all TLS certificates to ensure seamless renewal and 90-Day compliance.
Organizational readiness is critical
Venafi’s 90-Day TLS Readiness Solution helps enterprises accelerate their transition to the 90-day TLS certificate standard, merging technology with expert services for a seamless shift. This unique, orchestrated approach ensures alignment across your organization—promoting automation, minimizing disruptions, and enhancing cybersecurity posture in compliance with NIST recommendations. At the core of the solution, Venafi’s Control Plane offers visibility to manage 90-day certificates effectively, coupled with the intelligence for ongoing monitoring and policy enforcement. This comprehensive solution not only streamlines certificate renewal processes but also strengthens security posture, ensuring organizations can confidently navigate the complexities of shorter certificate lifespans.
Technology is still a key success factor
As organizations brace for the transition to the 90-day TLS standard, TLS Protect stands out as an essential tool for navigating this change. It offers unmatched visibility and control over TLS certificates across diverse environments and provides a platform for automating the renewal process to avoid costly outages and ensure continuous compliance. This capability is crucial for maintaining the trust and integrity of digital communications in an increasingly stringent cybersecurity landscape. TLS Protect also enables businesses to respond swiftly to emerging threats and adapt to new regulatory demands with ease. Moreover, the integration capabilities of TLS Protect extend its utility beyond mere compliance, facilitating a seamless and secure digital transformation journey for enterprises aiming to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital ecosystem.
Everything in Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) is predicated on having an accurate inventory. Think about it—it’s the lifecycle of certificates in your inventory that gets managed. If your CLM solution doesn’t incorporate multi-layered false positive mitigation technology into its internet-based discovery capabilities, you’ll be left with an inaccurate inventory of the certificates. For example, if your CLM solution relies heavily on certificate transparency logs to inventory your TLS certificates, this will result in a staggering number of false positives. So you’ll have to budget time each day to manually suppress false positives one-by-one to determine which certificates were issued but shouldn’t be managed. Granted. You can always update the inventory yourself. But shouldn’t your CLM solution maintain an accurate inventory for you, freeing you to do more valuable things than matching lists? With 5x the number of certificates looming, be sure you’re not signing up for 5X the false positives.
Learn why you'll need the right mix of people, processes and technology.
90-Day TLS Readiness Solution key features
- 90-Day Readiness Assessment. Initiates the transition to the 90-day standard by identifying critical areas needing attention, ensuring focused and effective readiness efforts.
- 90-Day Certificate Validated Discovery. Uncovers all certificates—especially those not compliant with the new standard—to understand the project’s full scope.
- 90-Day Enterprise Impact. Evaluates the potential risks and costs associated with non-compliance, aiding in prioritization and mitigation strategies.
- 90-Day Critical Automations. The critical automations required by your enterprise to ensure a seamless cutover to the 90-day TLS certificate standard.
- 90-Day Critical Workflows. Streamline and enforce critical workflows associated with the management, renewal, and compliance of 90-day TLS certificates.
- 90-Day Ready Enterprise Roadmap. Provides a detailed action plan, ensuring all parts of the organization move in unison towards 90-day TLS certificate readiness.
- 90-Day Implementation Guidance. Delivers expert services to navigate the transition, emphasizing the seamless implementation of necessary automations.
- 90-Day Enterprise Readiness Validation. Validates readiness for the 90-day TLS certificate standard, ensuring all aspects of the transition have been assessed and offering assurance that the organization will be compliant and secure.
- 90-Day Enterprise Certification. Demonstrates and provides assurance of the enterprise’s 90-day readiness among vendors, partners, and customers to meet and exceed security standards recommended by bodies like NIST.
- 90-Day Enterprise Enablement. Equips teams with the knowledge and skills to navigate the transition to 90-day TLS certificates seamlessly, ensuring readiness and compliance.
Get 90-day ready now
Preparing now for the 90-day TLS certificate standard is essential to ensure your organization’s smooth transition, minimize outages and maintain compliance. Venafi’s 90-Day TLS Readiness Solution provides the tools and services needed for this adaptation, offering comprehensive visibility, automation, and professional guidance to navigate the complexities of shorter certificate lifespans efficiently.
Venafi enables enterprises to address TLS server certificate security and operational risks.