Certificate Management

Automated TLS certificate lifecycle and internal PKI

Management of self-signed certificates and internal PKI. Lifecycle management, renewal automation, and secure certificate distribution for internal services.

Overview#

Our certificate management service provides:

Internal PKI: Deploy and manage your own Certificate Authorities
Self-Signed Certificates: Issuance for internal services, APIs, and databases
Automated Renewal: Zero-downtime certificate rotation
Secure Distribution: Kubernetes secrets, Vault, or encrypted channels
mTLS Support: Mutual TLS for service-to-service authentication

Key Features#

PKI Management#

Root CA: Secure offline or HSM-backed root
Intermediate CAs: Issuing CAs for different environments
Certificate Policies: Define validity, key usage, SANs
Key Storage: Secure storage for CA private keys

Lifecycle#

Issuance: Automated certificate generation
Renewal: Proactive renewal before expiry
Rotation: Seamless key and certificate rotation
Revocation: CRL and OCSP support

Distribution#

Kubernetes: cert-manager integration
Vault: HashiCorp Vault PKI engine
Secrets Management: Encrypted distribution
Automation: API-driven provisioning

Integration#

cert-manager: Kubernetes-native certificate management
Istio/Linkerd: Service mesh mTLS
Load Balancers: TLS termination certificates
Applications: In-app certificate injection

Supported Solutions#

HashiCorp Vault PKI - Enterprise PKI as a service
cert-manager - Kubernetes certificate automation
OpenSSL/CFSSL - Traditional PKI tooling
Let's Encrypt - For public-facing services (optional)
Custom PKI - Design and deploy custom solutions

Management Process#

PKI Design
- Define CA hierarchy
- Establish trust boundaries
- Document certificate policies
Deployment
- Deploy root and intermediate CAs
- Configure secure key storage
- Set up issuance workflows
Automation
- Integrate with Kubernetes
- Configure renewal triggers
- Set up distribution pipelines
Ongoing Management
- Monitor certificate expiry
- Handle renewals and revocation
- Maintain audit logs

Common Use Cases#

Kubernetes Internal TLS#

Encrypt pod-to-pod traffic
Ingress and service mesh certificates
cert-manager with internal CA

Microservices mTLS#

Service-to-service authentication
Zero-trust network security
Certificate-based identity

Internal APIs & Databases#

TLS for internal API endpoints
Encrypted database connections
Development and staging certificates

Legacy Application Support#

Internal services requiring TLS
Custom certificate formats
Java keystore and PKCS#12

Self-Signed vs Public CA#

Aspect	Self-Signed	Public CA (e.g. Let's Encrypt)
Use Case	Internal services	Public-facing endpoints
Trust	Your infrastructure only	Browser/OS trust stores
Cost	Free	Free (Let's Encrypt) or paid
Validation	Manual/custom	Domain validation
Validity	Your choice	Typically 90 days

We manage both: self-signed for internal services, and public CAs for external-facing applications.