Forming the core of PKI, SSL/TLS certificates have served as the Internet's primary means of authentication, encryption, and security for years – they’re used universally across business, vertical, and function to this very day. PKI has never been a set-and-forget solution. Without diligent and constant management, certificates are vulnerable to a host of issues like expiry and invalidity which can cripple network security and leave users open to attacks, breaches, and system downtime. 

The average certificate count of a business runs into the high thousands. What’s more, there are several variables associated with managing one certificate (multiple CAs, expiration dates, levels of encryption, locations in the network, etc.). Both these factors considered, the fact remains that an automated management process (of the certificate lifecycle) has numerous advantages over its manual counterpart.