What is PKI Management? Complete Enterprise Guide for 2026

What is PKI Management?

PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) management encompasses all activities involved in establishing, operating, and maintaining a public key infrastructure. This includes:

• Certificate Authority (CA) operations
• Certificate lifecycle management
• Key management
• Policy and governance
• Compliance and auditing

Effective PKI management ensures digital certificates and cryptographic keys are properly issued, stored, used, and retired throughout their lifecycle.

Why PKI Management Matters

The Digital Trust Foundation

PKI provides the cryptographic foundation for:

• HTTPS/TLS: Securing web communications
• Email Security: S/MIME encryption and signing
• Code Signing: Software authenticity verification
• Authentication: User and device identity
• IoT Security: Device identity and communication

Business Impact of Poor PKI Management

Organizations with inadequate PKI management face:

• Service Outages: Expired certificates cause downtime
• Security Breaches: Compromised keys enable attacks
• Compliance Failures: Regulatory violations and fines
• Reputation Damage: Customer trust erosion
• Operational Inefficiency: Manual processes waste resources

Real-World Examples

Notable Certificate-Related Outages:

2020: Microsoft Teams global outage - expired certificate
2020: Spotify worldwide crash - certificate expiration
2021: Let's Encrypt root expiration - millions affected
2022: Atlassian services down - certificate chain issue

Components of PKI Management

1. Certificate Authority Management

Managing your CA hierarchy:

Root CA:

• Highest trust anchor
• Typically offline for security
• Long-lived certificates (10-20 years)

Intermediate CAs:

• Issue end-entity certificates
• Online for operations
• Medium-lived certificates (3-5 years)

Policy Management:

• Certificate policies (CP)
• Certification practice statements (CPS)
• Key usage constraints

2. Certificate Lifecycle Management

Managing certificates from creation to retirement:

Discovery: Finding all certificates across your infrastructure

Inventory: Centralized tracking and ownership

Issuance: Secure certificate provisioning

Renewal: Automated or managed renewal processes

Revocation: Invalidating compromised or unnecessary certificates

Retirement: Proper certificate and key disposal

3. Key Management

Securing cryptographic keys:

Generation:

• Strong algorithms (RSA 2048+, ECC P-256+)
• Secure random number generation
• Hardware Security Modules (HSMs)

Storage:

• HSM protection for sensitive keys
• Encrypted key storage
• Access controls

Rotation:

• Regular key replacement
• Incident-driven rotation
• Algorithm migration

Backup and Recovery:

• Secure key backup
• Disaster recovery procedures
• Key escrow (when required)

4. Policy and Governance

Establishing PKI rules:

Certificate Policies:

• Allowed key sizes and algorithms
• Maximum validity periods
• Naming conventions
• Approved use cases

Access Controls:

• Who can request certificates
• Who can approve requests
• Who can revoke certificates
• Audit requirements

Compliance:

• Regulatory requirements (PCI, HIPAA, SOC 2)
• Industry standards (WebTrust, ETSI)
• Internal security policies

PKI Management Challenges

Certificate Sprawl

Modern enterprises have certificates everywhere:

Average Enterprise Certificate Inventory:

Web servers:         500-5,000
Internal services:   1,000-10,000
Cloud resources:     500-2,000
IoT/devices:         100-10,000
User certificates:   1,000-50,000
Code signing:        10-100
                     ─────────────
Total:              3,000-77,000+

Distributed Infrastructure

Certificates across:

• Multiple cloud providers
• On-premise data centers
• Edge locations
• Remote offices
• Mobile devices

Shortened Certificate Validity

Industry trends toward shorter lifetimes:

Certificate Validity Evolution:

2015: 5 years maximum
2018: 2 years maximum
2020: 1 year maximum (398 days)
2026: 200 days maximum
2029: 47 days maximum

Automation Requirements

Manual PKI management cannot scale:

• Too many certificates
• Too frequent renewals
• Too complex infrastructure
• Too high risk

Implementing Effective PKI Management

Step 1: Assessment

Understand your current state:

1. Discovery: Find all certificates
2. Inventory: Document what you have
3. Gap Analysis: Identify management gaps
4. Risk Assessment: Prioritize by criticality

Step 2: Strategy

Define your PKI approach:

1. Architecture: CA hierarchy design
2. Policies: Certificate and key policies
3. Automation: Lifecycle automation strategy
4. Tooling: Platform selection

Step 3: Implementation

Deploy PKI management capabilities:

1. Platform: Deploy CLM solution (like TigerTrust)
2. Integration: Connect to infrastructure
3. Automation: Configure automated workflows
4. Monitoring: Establish monitoring and alerts

Step 4: Operations

Ongoing PKI operations:

1. Governance: Policy enforcement
2. Compliance: Audit and reporting
3. Improvement: Continuous optimization
4. Training: Team capability building

Modern PKI Management with TigerTrust

TigerTrust provides comprehensive PKI management:

PKI Core

Full CA capabilities:

• Root and Intermediate CA management
• CRL and OCSP services
• HSM integration
• Policy-based issuance

Certificate Lifecycle Management

Complete CLM:

• Multi-cloud discovery
• Centralized inventory
• Automated renewal
• Policy enforcement

Additional Capabilities

Beyond traditional PKI:

• SSH key management
• Code signing automation
• AI-powered analytics
• Compliance reporting

Deployment Flexibility

Your choice of deployment:

• Cloud SaaS
• On-premise (including air-gapped)
• Hybrid configurations

PKI Management Best Practices

Automate Everything

• Automated certificate discovery
• Automated renewal workflows
• Automated deployment
• Automated alerting

Centralize Visibility

• Single pane of glass
• Cross-environment view
• Real-time status
• Comprehensive reporting

Enforce Policies

• Consistent standards
• Automated compliance
• Exception handling
• Audit trails

Plan for the Future

• 47-day certificate readiness
• Post-quantum cryptography
• Zero trust architecture
• Continuous improvement

Conclusion

PKI management is essential for enterprise security in 2026 and beyond. With certificate validity periods shrinking and infrastructure complexity growing, organizations need modern, automated PKI management solutions.

TigerTrust provides the comprehensive PKI management capabilities enterprises need—from CA operations to certificate lifecycle automation—in one modern, cost-effective platform.

Start your PKI management journey. Request a demo or explore our documentation.