State of PKI Automation 2021

PKI lies at the heart of nearly every aspect of technology. It is crucial to authenticating and signing for users, servers, devices, IoT, DevOps applications and services, digital document signing and so much more.

But managing PKI is quickly becoming impossible to do manually. The number of PKI certificates enterprises need to manage grew by 43 percent year-overyear in a recent Ponemon study. Add that to shrinking certificate validity periods, and the stage is set for enterprises to become overwhelmed by PKI certificate management.

In order to better understand how enterprises are handling this challenge, DigiCert commissioned ReRez Research of Dallas, Texas, to survey IT managers responsible for PKI management at 400 enterprises worldwide. Overall, the results paint a picture of PKI certificate turmoil and also show how the very best organizations are staying on top of PKI management.

WHAT IS PKI AUTOMATION?

We defined PKI automation for survey respondents as including the following aspects:

• Discovering existing digital certificates
• Issuing new digital certificates
• Renewing digital certificates when they are about to expire
• Revoking digital certificates when necessary
• Automating code signing
• Enrollment process for client certificates
• Identity verification (e.g., for document signing)
• Automating extended provisioning activities, such as entry into LDAP and Exchange
• Other housekeeping activities related to PKI management