In recent years, there hasn’t been a discussion on the cloud without touching upon the “hybrid” approach. While it seems to be a widely known concept, very few PKI teams understand its intricacies and how it can benefit their pursuit of adaptable certificate management. Optimum flexibility and resilience have proved to be quite elusive until now.
In this article, we take the path less charted and explore the hybrid approach to certificate management. Read on to learn why this agile and automated strategy is worth considering for your PKI needs.
What is Hybrid Certificate Management?
“Hybrid certificate management” is, at its simplest, a strategy that combines on-premise and cloud-based solutions. A hybrid approach gives businesses greater flexibility by moving certificate management workloads between the two distinct environments as needs fluctuate.
A hybrid approach is powerful because it gives enterprises more control over critical certificate processes and data. Suppose an organization stores delicate certificate details in-house while utilizing the full computation power of a publicly managed cloud. In that case, it can effectively leverage the cloud while retaining unobstructed access to and control of the underlying PKI infrastructure.
Some tools make it easy to implement a hybrid approach because they’re inherently environment-agnostic. Those should be top-of-mind if you’re already sold on this model. Sectigo, for example, is a certificate lifecycle management system that focuses on end-to-end automation of key and certificate functions across cloud, multi-cloud, and on-premise enterprise environments.
How Does the Hybrid Approach Work?
The idea behind this strategy is simple: to leverage the strengths of both on-premise and cloud-based solutions while addressing specific constraints and requirements. Rather than choosing between hands-on and cloud-agnostic certificate management, you get the best of both worlds every time.
In this setup, high-stakes decisions must be made continually. You have to decide which certificates will be managed on-premise and which are better managed in the cloud. Moreover, you must select your on-premise PKI tools meticulously to avoid incompatibility issues. Perhaps the real elephant in the room is how these two distinct environments can integrate and communicate to ensure a seamless exchange of certificates and related data. One mishap or miscalculation is all it takes to render the whole approach dysfunctional. To that end, APIs, secure connections, and encryption protocols must be carefully picked and established to ensure data privacy and integrity during exchanges.
What are the Benefits of Hybrid Certificate Management?
Utilizing one on-premise or cloud-based PKI can be daunting and ominous for some IT teams. Bringing the two environments together brings many benefits that are hard to find in an exclusive certificate management setup.
1. Infinite Flexibility
One of the best things about the hybrid approach is that you get to choose the best method for each use case. For example, mission-critical certificates can be managed fully on-premise with close and complete oversight. Meanwhile, less sensitive certificates can be tracked and monitored in the cloud. The inverse can also be true, depending on the certificate lifecycle management system you’ve implemented.
2. Water-Tight Security and Compliance
Cybercriminals are overworking. If you are to outmaneuver them successfully, you must always keep all critical data out of their reach. For X.509 certificates, details like expiry date and private key can be literal “bombs” in the wrong hands. A prime example is the infamous SolarWinds Attack of 2020.
Retaining sensitive certificate information in-house means it’ll be easier to maintain direct control and meet stringent compliance requirements. Besides, the root key and certificate management server are in a well-guarded data center, away from the prying eyes of malicious actors. Less critical certificates can be managed on the cloud. Again, the reverse is true if you have a robust cloud-agnostic automation solution.
3. Incredible Resilience
If one solution hits a snag and experiences downtime, the other can assume full roles immediately. Essentially, one environment acts as the sole certificate manager until the affected environment is back up and running.
Compare that with having just one cloud-based or on-premise solution. Granted, any downtime will put your entire certificate operations in jeopardy. At that moment, several certificates can go past their expiry dates even if it’s just a few countable minutes. When your PKI resumes normalcy, it might be too late. A hybrid approach is entirely immune to woes and costs associated with unexpected outages.
Hybrid: The Solution You Never Knew Existed But Need
From afar, automated hybrid certificate management might not look like a particularly beneficial solution. It becomes apparent how adept this PKI strategy is at helping enterprises achieve a delicate balance between control, flexibility, and resilience. No matter the use case, business requirement, or nature of the threat, the hybrid can capably hold up without being compromised or losing critical functionality. It is the answer to PKI teams’ most urgent need: a solution that can do it all.
