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Managing digital certificates and encryption across modern enterprise infrastructures is more critical—and more complex—than ever. As organizations scale, they face challenges like certificate sprawl, expiration risks, and fragmented ownership, all of which can lead to security vulnerabilities and operational disruptions. 

¶ºÒõ¹Ý Trust Lifecycle Manager integrates with HashiCorp’s Vault Enterprise Secrets Engine to streamline Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) management, enhance cryptographic agility, and mitigate risks associated with certificate mismanagement. This integration empowers IT and DevOps teams to securely automate and centralize certificate lifecycle management while maintaining compliance and operational efficiency.

The need for an integrated approach

PKI and secrets management have traditionally been handled separately, often leading to inefficiencies and security gaps. Without automation, organizations struggle with: 

• Manual certificate issuance and renewal, increasing the risk of expired or non-compliant certificates.
• Disconnected DevOps workflows, creating bottlenecks in deployment processes.
• Scattered secrets and certificates, elevating security risks and complicating audits.

By integrating ¶ºÒõ¹Ý Trust Lifecycle Manager with HashiCorp Vault and Terraform, organizations can align PKI management with modern DevOps methodologies, ensuring that certificates are seamlessly issued, rotated, and revoked as part of automated infrastructure workflows.

Key benefits of the ¶ºÒõ¹Ý-HashiCorp integration

1. Automated certificate lifecycle management

• Eliminate manual processes: Automate issuance, renewal, and revocation of certificates directly through HashiCorp Vault’s Secrets Engine.
• Enhance reliability: Reduce downtime and security risks by ensuring certificates remain current and compliant.

2. Infrastructure as code with Terraform

• Seamless Certificate Deployment: Define and deploy PKI configurations as code across Kubernetes clusters, cloud environments, and virtual machines.

• Scalable DevOps Workflows: Ensure certificates are provisioned consistently across environments, reducing human error and improving efficiency.

3. Centralized PKI and secrets management

• Unified Visibility: Manage public and private certificates from a single interface, reducing certificate sprawl. 

• Regulatory Compliance: Ensure alignment with policies and audit standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.

4. Enhanced security through HashiCorp Vault

• Secure Storage: Protect private keys and credentials using Vault’s advanced encryption and access controls.

• Automated Policy Enforcement: Enforce role-based access control (RBAC) and security policies for certificate handling.

Real-world use cases

Kubernetes certificate management

Automate the provisioning of TLS certificates for Kubernetes pods using Terraform, ensuring secure microservice communication. Microservices built on service mesh frequently run using the default self-signed certificate, weakening trust and opening the system to attack.

Secrets management for cloud workloads

Securely manage secrets across clouds API keys and PKI certificates within HashiCorp Vault, unifying secrets and certificate handling.

Hybrid cloud security

Implement consistent encryption practices across on-premises and multi-cloud environments to maintain security posture.

How it works

¶ºÒõ¹Ý’s Vault PKI Plugin extends Vault’s capabilities by integrating with enterprise certificate authorities through ¶ºÒõ¹Ý Trust Lifecycle Manager, bypassing Vault’s native PKI engine. This enables:

• Automated certificate issuance and renewal using Vault’s built-in workflows.

• Compliance with organizational security policies and audit requirements.

• Connectivity to both public and private certificate authorities managed within Trust Lifecycle Manager.

Addressing the challenges of modern PKI

As digital transformation accelerates, enterprises require a PKI strategy that is both scalable and secure. Traditional, manual approaches to certificate management introduce risks like: 

• Expired certificates leading to service outages. 

• Security vulnerabilities and breaches due to weak or mismanaged cryptographic keys. 

• Compliance failures stemming from inadequate tracking and enforcement. 

By leveraging ¶ºÒõ¹Ý TLM with HashiCorp Vault and Terraform, organizations can move beyond these limitations, ensuring a proactive, automated approach to PKI and secrets management.

The integration of ¶ºÒõ¹Ý Trust Lifecycle Manager with HashiCorp Vault and Terraform represents a forward-thinking approach to PKI modernization. By automating certificate management, enhancing security, and aligning with DevOps best practices, enterprises can build a resilient cryptographic infrastructure that supports both current security needs and future cryptographic transitions—including post-quantum cryptography (PQC).

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