Today, migrating all or part of an IT system to the cloud is a project that is generally well mastered, both functionally and technically. However, the impact of cloud migration projects on digital certificate management is often underestimated. Here are seven challenges to address so that you can get through the process smoothly.
1 – Multiplication of certificates and environments
The transition to the cloud leads to an increase in the number of certificates to be managed. In particular, to secure hybrid infrastructures, multi-cloud deployments and, of course, the multiple services supported by the cloud infrastructure, via strong authentication of all agents: machine identities (physical or virtual servers, network equipment, etc.), or user identities.
As a result, manual methods for managing digital certificates and their lifecycle become time-consuming and risky, especially in a context of shortening certificate lifespans.
The adoption of a solution to centralize the management of digital certificates is becoming more and more of a necessity. This means being able to efficiently discover, manage and monitor all certificates, whatever their hosting environment. This global approach not only reduces the risk of undetected expirations, but also considerably improves visibility of the company’s security infrastructure.
2 – Increased complexity of digital certificate management
Cloud environments introduce new layers of complexity for certificate management. Integration with native services such as AWS Certificate Manager or Azure Key Vault, management of containerized architectures and microservices, and adaptation to dynamic resources all require more sophisticated solutions.
These tools must be able to integrate seamlessly with different cloud platforms, while offering unified visibility over all certificates. Automated deployment and renewal processes are essential in these complex environments.
3 – Increased security requirements
In a cloud environment, the security of communications is just as important as the security of the infrastructure itself: data transits via the Internet or between different services, making SSL/TLS certificates key to guaranteeing the confidentiality and integrity of exchanges.
To meet these requirements, rigorous certificate management is required. This involves the use of robust encryption algorithms, regular certificate renewal and strict access controls. Real-time monitoring of certificate use also enables any anomalies to be detected quickly, and reinforces the company’s overall security posture.
4 – Need for automation and scalability
One of the main benefits of the cloud is that it is both dynamic and elastic, requiring equally agile certificate management to meet needs “on the fly”. Automation becomes an imperative to address the rapid creation and deletion of resources, as well as the increasing use of certificates with short lifetime.
The integration of certificate management into CI/CD pipelines, the use of APIs and webhooks for programmatic management, and the implementation of systems capable of adapting rapidly to changes in scale make it virtually impossible to manage certificates manually, which, in addition to a time-consuming workload, poses significant risks of human error.
5 – Compliance and security audits
Whether the infrastructure is hosted in-house or hosted in the cloud, compliance with regulations applying to the organization’s geographical location and sector of activity, on the one hand, and compliance with standards (mandatory or voluntary) such as ISO 27001, RGPD, NIS2 or PCI DSS, on the other, require rigourous certificate management.
To achieve this, certificates need to be fully traceable, so that the status and history of certificates can be known at any time: alerts as the end of their validity approaches, automated renewal, etc. The implementation of role-based access controls and proactive alerts for important events thus contribute to maintaining a high level of compliance and facilitating audit processes.
6 – Technological transition and modernization opportunity
Migration to the cloud therefore represents an opportunity to rethink digital certificate management and move from manual management, where this is still the case, to fully automated management. Adopting practices such as “certificate as code” and integrating certificate management into DevOps processes can radically transform a company’s approach to security. The use of protocols such as ACME for automation, and integration with orchestration tools such as Kubernetes or OpenShit, and their cert-manager certificate management tool, also guarantee sustainable certificate management consistent with current best practices.
7 – Managing the risks of cloud migration
The transition period during migration to the cloud involves specific risks: on the functional and technical migration itself, but also with regard to digital certificate management. Loss of visibility over existing certificates, and the risk of oversight or mismanagement, can lead to service interruptions that are detrimental to an organization’s business and image.
To mitigate these risks, a complete pre-migration inventory of digital certificates is required. In this context, automated mapping solutions such as BerryCert are particularly useful, and will be just as useful during migration, and then downstream of the process. A detailed migration plan, including verification steps and training of IT teams in the specifics of certificate management in a cloud environment, is essential to ensure a smooth transition.
In conclusion, the success of a cloud migration project is not limited to application migration issues: intelligent, proactive management of digital certificates is essential to guarantee a successful transition.
