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Boost Operational Efficiency With Managed PKIaaS

We live in an era of hybrid cloud infrastructure where some IT infrastructure resides on-premises and the majority of the IT resources are hosted in the cloud. However, the strategy to secure those resources and protect data is not the same for cloud resources and on-premise systems. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a proven technology used to secure network devices, IT systems and IoT devices in hybrid infrastructure. The modern PKI deployments are used against a dynamic nature of cyber threats, spanning from phishing attacks, distributed denial of service (DDoS), credential theft and more.

Implementing PKI in your enterprise is vital to securing the exchange of sensitive information and machine-to-machine authentication. However, implementing, managing, and supporting PKI to protect hybrid IT infrastructure can be challenging — you need to be continually alerted to new attack vectors, stay on top of the technology, hire expert staff, and ensure you can properly balance security with convenience.

That’s why an adaptable, cloud-based Managed PKI-as-a-Service solution (PKIaaS) can provide you the scale and flexibility you need to deal with the most demanding security challenges. Outsourcing the complexity of PKI management makes it much easier for you to protect hybrid enterprise networks, IT systems, and IoT devices.

The Benefits of PKIaaS for Securing Your Organization

Cloud-managed PKI lets you simplify your security operations and provide cost efficiency without losing control of your trusted assets. Shifting PKI management to a specialized service creates substantial security, compliance and scalability advantages, allowing your organization to:

  1. Simplify PKI Operations



    PKI deployment requires expertise and resources and it can be complex based on the use case. PKI-as-a-Service provides an easy way to outsource the complexity of PKI while getting all the benefits of PKI.

  2. Implement Best Practices for PKI Deployment



    PKI holds the key to the kingdom, so you better protect those keys from attackers. If you don’t have expertise in-house to host PKI infrastructure, the task can be daunting. You need to stay ahead of potential attackers and breaches by using a complete PKI solution that’s continually updated and takes advantage of cutting-edge security research. PKI-as-a-Service provides an easy way to leverage industry best practices for PKI deployment so you can be assured that your keys are protected.

  3. Meet Compliance and Regulatory Guidelines for PKI Security



    Hosting a PKI in-house comes with enormous challenges around cyber security and compliance. Typically, PKI deployments need to go through various compliance audit requirements. PKIaaS provides a great way to reduce cyber risk by obtaining industry standard practices and highly secure facilities for hosting. A PKIaaS provider has expertise and resources to manage the security best practices and compliance audits.

  4. Control Budgets and Reduce Costs for PKI Operations



    You need to control PKI hosting and security costs for both your day-to-day operational needs and for any program or project that increases the scope of security in your organization. PKIaaS provides you with strong cost management options that allow you to balance PKI investment with a strong business case and identified security requirements.

  5. Add and Change PKI Security Services at Any Time



    If you run your own on-premise PKI services, you’re limited by the capabilities and demands for your PKI infrastructure. This could mean significant extra investment as you add or update services. PKIaaS avoids this issue by providing PKI as needed, meaning you can increase capacity and expand technologies without upfront investment or concerns about demand.

  6. Deploy Scalable PKI Services Quickly and Accurately



    Speed and quality are essential to ramping up PKI in a scalable and manageable way. PKIaaS grows alongside your business and security needs. A good, cloud-based PKI solution will support a variety of use cases. Your security project managers can rely on immediately available, flexible and customizable PKI services.

PKIaaS in Practice

Here are some examples of how a managed PKI service like HydrantID can revolutionize your security management:

  • Choose from a variety of implementation options including preconfigured Certificate Authority services or completely customized Managed PKI-as-a-Service
  • Management of all certificate validations with highly scalable OCSP and CRL processes
  • Enjoy total policy control and delegated administration to control certificate issuance and management
  • Get on-demand auditing and confidence that you’re meeting compliance and certificate requirements
  • Support private and trusted certificate services from a central certificate management portal for single pane of glass for all digital certificates
  • Take advantage of deep insight and reporting on PKI usage, certificate management, and other key areas
  • Automated certificate management through Microsoft auto-enrollment gateway or standard-based protocols such as ACME, SCEP or EST
  • Integrate with trusted certificate services including OV, EV, Wildcard and SAN certificates with one low subscription fee. No per certificate-based pricing.
  • Integration with enterprise certificate lifecycle management platform such as Venafi or enterprise digital workflow platform such as ServiceNow

HydrantID’s cloud-based, private PKI-as-a-Service enables organizations to quickly create and deploy their own enterprise-private PKI trust hierarchies to secure their networks, IT systems and IoT devices.

Download our white paper on automated digital certificate lifecycle management to learn more about how PKIaaS simplifies operations for IT teams.

Questions? Contact one of our PKI experts for answers.

Mrugesh Chandarana is Product Management Director for Identity and Access Management Solutions at HID Global, where he focuses on IoT and PKI solutions. He has more than ten years of cybersecurity industry experience in areas such as risk management, threat and vulnerability management, application security and PKI. He has held product management positions at RiskSense, WhiteHat Security (acquired by NTT Security), and RiskVision (acquired by Resolver, Inc.).