Azure Certificate Management Tools: Complete Guide for 2026

Certificate Management in Azure

Microsoft Azure provides multiple services for managing certificates, but organizations often struggle with fragmented visibility and manual processes. This guide covers Azure's native tools and how to implement comprehensive certificate lifecycle management.

Azure Native Certificate Tools

Azure Key Vault

The primary Azure service for secrets and certificate management:

Certificate Features:

• Certificate storage and management
• Automatic renewal for Key Vault-issued certificates
• Integration with Azure services
• HSM-backed key storage

Capabilities:

# Create a self-signed certificate
az keyvault certificate create --vault-name myVault --name myCert \
  --policy @policy.json

# Import an existing certificate
az keyvault certificate import --vault-name myVault --name myCert \
  --file cert.pfx --password "password"

# List certificates
az keyvault certificate list --vault-name myVault

Limitations:

• No cross-cloud visibility
• Limited discovery capabilities
• Basic automation
• No centralized management across vaults

Azure App Service Certificates

Certificates for Azure App Services:

Features:

• Managed certificates (free for custom domains)
• App Service Certificate purchasing
• Automatic binding to web apps

Considerations:

• Limited to App Service use cases
• No visibility into other Azure certificates
• Basic renewal automation

Azure Application Gateway Certificates

TLS termination for Azure Application Gateway:

Options:

• Key Vault integration
• Direct certificate upload
• Let's Encrypt via ACME

Challenges:

• Manual management for uploaded certs
• No unified view across gateways
• Limited automation

Azure Front Door Certificates

CDN and global load balancing certificates:

Features:

• Azure-managed certificates (automatic)
• Custom certificate support via Key Vault
• HTTPS enforcement

The Azure Certificate Management Challenge

Azure's native tools create several challenges:

Fragmentation

Certificates scattered across:

• Multiple Key Vaults
• App Services
• Application Gateways
• Azure Front Door
• VMs and Container instances
• AKS clusters

Limited Visibility

• No single pane of glass
• Manual inventory management
• Missed expirations
• Unknown certificates

Automation Gaps

• Basic renewal capabilities
• No cross-service automation
• Manual deployment processes
• Limited ACME support

Enterprise Azure Certificate Management

TigerTrust Azure Integration

TigerTrust provides comprehensive Azure certificate management:

Discovery:

• Automatic scanning of all Key Vaults
• App Service certificate discovery
• Application Gateway certificate inventory
• AKS secrets scanning
• VM certificate discovery via agent

Unified Dashboard:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│             TigerTrust Azure Dashboard                  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Key Vaults: 12        App Services: 45                 │
│  Certificates: 234     Expiring Soon: 8                 │
│                                                         │
│  App Gateways: 6       Front Door: 2                    │
│  AKS Clusters: 4       VMs: 120                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Automation Features:

• Automated renewal via ACME or CA integration
• Key Vault certificate deployment
• Cross-service certificate distribution
• Policy-based lifecycle management

Architecture

                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │   TigerTrust     │
                    │   Cloud/On-Prem  │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │ Azure API
          ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐
          ▼                  ▼                  ▼
   ┌──────────────┐   ┌──────────────┐   ┌──────────────┐
   │  Key Vaults  │   │ App Services │   │  App Gateway │
   └──────────────┘   └──────────────┘   └──────────────┘
          │                  │                  │
          ▼                  ▼                  ▼
   ┌──────────────┐   ┌──────────────┐   ┌──────────────┐
   │  Front Door  │   │  AKS/K8s     │   │  VMs         │
   └──────────────┘   └──────────────┘   └──────────────┘

Setting Up Azure Certificate Management

Step 1: Connect Azure Subscription

Configure TigerTrust Azure connector:

# TigerTrust API example
import tigertrust

client = tigertrust.Client(api_key="your-key")

# Add Azure connection
azure_conn = client.connections.create(
    type="azure",
    credentials={
        "tenant_id": "your-tenant-id",
        "client_id": "your-client-id",
        "client_secret": "your-secret"
    },
    subscriptions=["sub-1", "sub-2"]
)

Step 2: Run Discovery

Discover all Azure certificates:

# TigerTrust CLI
tigertrust discover azure --subscription all --include-vms

Step 3: Configure Automation

Set up automated management:

# TigerTrust policy for Azure
policy:
  name: azure-certificate-policy
  scope:
    provider: azure
    resource_types:
      - key_vault
      - app_service
      - application_gateway

  rules:
    - name: auto-renewal
      condition: days_to_expiry < 30
      action: renew
      ca: letsencrypt

    - name: deploy-to-services
      trigger: certificate_renewed
      action: deploy
      targets:
        - type: key_vault
        - type: app_service
        - type: application_gateway

Step 4: Monitor and Alert

Configure monitoring:

• Dashboard for Azure certificate status
• Slack/Teams alerts for expiring certificates
• Integration with Azure Monitor
• Compliance reporting

Best Practices for Azure Certificate Management

Centralize in Key Vault

• Store all certificates in Key Vault
• Use Key Vault references in App Service
• Enable soft-delete and purge protection
• Implement RBAC for access control

Automate Everything

• Use TigerTrust for automated renewal
• Implement GitOps for certificate deployment
• Automate certificate distribution to services
• Set up continuous discovery

Monitor Comprehensively

• Track all certificate expirations
• Alert on compliance violations
• Monitor Key Vault access
• Audit certificate operations

Plan for Multi-Cloud

• Ensure visibility across Azure, AWS, GCP
• Standardize certificate policies
• Use unified management platform
• Implement consistent automation

Comparison: Native vs TigerTrust

Conclusion

While Azure provides basic certificate management capabilities through Key Vault and service-specific features, enterprise organizations need comprehensive visibility and automation across all Azure services and multi-cloud environments.

TigerTrust's Azure integration provides the unified management, automation, and visibility needed for effective certificate lifecycle management in Azure environments.

Get started with TigerTrust for Azure. Start your free trial or see Azure integration docs.