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AppViewX: Beyond PKI Automation – A Comprehensive Machine Identity Management Solution
Core Value Proposition
In today's cybersecurity landscape, managing digital certificates and machine identities across complex, hybrid multi-cloud environments are a growing challenge. As the volumes of digital certificates used to provide digital trust and to secure machines, applications, workloads, services, and devices continues to grow exponentially, organizations often struggle with lack of visibility and manual processes, resulting in critical security vulnerabilities and resource inefficiencies.
AppViewX CERT+ is a next-generation automated certificate lifecycle management (CLM) solution that simplifies public key infrastructure (PKI) and certificate management. AppViewX CERT+ offers robust automation, security, and insights to manage machine identities and digital trust. This helps organizations prevent application outages and security breaches by addressing the complexities of certificate management. By enabling enterprise-wide crypto-agility, AppViewX CERT+ enhances machine identity trust, eliminates security gaps, promotes compliance, and supports post-quantum cryptography readiness.
This article delves into the AppViewX solution, analyzes its core strengths, and how it promotes identity-first security and zero trust.
Key Differentiators
Several key features distinguish AppViewX from its competitors:
- Automation Platform: AppViewX CERT+ is a robust automation solution designed to streamline CLM end-to-end, from issuance and provisioning to renewals and revocation. AppViewX CERT+ significantly reduces manual work, improves efficiency, and minimizes human error.
- Crypto-Agility: AppViewX CERT+ enables crypto-agility capabilities that allow organizations to seamlessly transition between cryptographic algorithms and standards, which is critical for post-quantum cryptography readiness and preparing for Google’s 90-day TLS validity proposal.
- Vendor Agnosticism: AppViewX CERT+ integrates with all leading certificate authorities (CAs) (public and private), hardware security module vendors, cloud services, DevOps toolchains, ITSM, SIEM, and MDMs. This flexibility eliminates platform lock-in and empowers organizations to leverage their existing processes and investments.
- Cloud-Native Architecture: Built on a SaaS microservices architecture hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), AppViewX CERT+ offers rapid deployment, scalability, and global availability. This modern approach simplifies infrastructure management and eliminates on-premises constraints. AppViewX CERT+ can also be deployed on-premises for those customers where SaaS may not be an option.
- Security Features: AppViewX CERT+ goes beyond certificate lifecycle automation, offering security features like cryptographic vulnerability assessments, certificate enforcement policies, and role-based access control (RBAC). This helps organizations establish enterprise-wide PKI policies, maintain compliance, and mitigate security risks.
- Policy-Driven Control: Support for RBAC to ensure secure management and self-service capabilities, enabling CLM based on robust crypto policies to govern certificate issuance, expiration, and usage, ensuring compliance and mitigating risks.
- Visibility & Control: AppViewX CERT+ provides insight into the state of certificate sprawl across an organization. It provides comprehensive visibility into certificates across hybrid multi-cloud environments, enabling organizations to set granular policies, control access, and gain a holistic view of their cryptographic landscape and security posture.
AppViewX Certificate Lifecycle and PKI Products
- AppViewX CERT+: AppViewX CERT+ simplifies CLM by providing visibility, automation, and control across hybrid, multi-cloud enterprise infrastructures. By enabling enterprise-wide crypto-agility, AppViewX CERT+ enhances machine identity trust, eliminates security gaps, promotes compliance, and supports post-quantum cryptography readiness.
- AppViewX PKI+ (PKIaaS): AppViewX PKI+ is a ready-to-consume, scalable, and compliant PKI-as-a-Service for issuing private trust certificates. AppViewX PKI+ allows you to modernize, simplify, and centralize your private PKI architecture and set up tailored custom CAs swiftly while meeting the highest standards of security and compliance.
Additional AppViewX Products:
- AppViewX SIGN+: AppViewX SIGN+ is a complete centralized code signing solution that integrates with DevOps processes and tools to make signing software, firmware, code, containers, and PowerShell scripts fast, reliable, and secure.
- AppViewX KUBE+: AppViewX KUBE+ provides centralized discovery, automation, and control of machine identities across Kubernetes clusters to ensure security, agility, and compliance in DevOps processes.
- AppViewX AppACCESS+: With automation, orchestration, and self-service capabilities for multi-vendor application delivery infrastructures, AppViewX AppACCESS+ eliminates manual processes to manage certificate lifecycles, provision load balancers, enable dynamic traffic management, ensure configuration standards, and automate management and compliance of domains, DNS records, and IPAM, and more.
AppViewX Differentiators
The AppViewX approach to PKI and CLM provides significant benefits and value to organizations struggling with manual processes, limited visibility, and reduced resources. These benefits include:
- Reduced Costs: Automation can significantly reduce manpower and administrative overhead associated with PKI and machine identity management.
- Improved Security: Enhanced visibility and control over digital identities and certificates can tighten security posture and minimize attack surfaces. With the SaaS implementation of AppViewX CERT+, you benefit from AWS's robust security infrastructure and compliance certifications.
- Increased Agility: Crypto-agility and a vendor-agnostic approach enable adaptation to evolving security standards and seamless integrations with modern technology stacks.
- Simplified Compliance: Simplified audits, logs, and reporting make adherence to security regulations and compliance mandates continuous, easier, and more efficient.
- Scalability and Elasticity: Easily scale PKI and CLM consumption up or down to meet changing demands.
- High Availability and Reliability: Ensure continuous service with geographically distributed data centers leveraging AWS.
- Reduced Risk: Mitigate certificate-related outages and security risks associated with expired and weak certificates, misconfigurations, and human error.
Considerations
While AppViewX presents a compelling value proposition, some considerations require further evaluation:
- Vendor Sprawl: With CLM combined with PKI-as-a-Service, AppViewX aims to consolidate tools from multiple vendors. AppViewX provides extensive integrations, reducing the burden normally faced with careful integration and management of a new security solution.
- Cost Effectiveness: Compared to open-source or existing solutions, AppViewX solutions may incur additional expenses, requiring a cost-benefit analysis before adoption.
Source: Analyst Demo with AppViewX with Nick Vannelli and Rod Parker, January 2024
Our Take
AppViewX offers an innovative approach to PKI and CLM, emphasizing visibility, automation, agility, and control with a CA-agnostic approach. Its strengths include comprehensive and customizable automation workflows, cloud-native architecture, and a focus on crypto-agility for future-proofing identity-first security. However, a thorough proof of value analysis is recommended so organizations can confirm the value and benefits of the AppViewX solution in their specific environments. The AppViewX solution warrants consideration by organizations seeking to enhance their machine identity and certificate management strategies.
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AppViewX Certificate Lifecycle Management
Threat Intelligence & Incident Response | Security Technology & Operations