SSL Life Cycle Automation

SSL Certificates & the AACD™ System

[1] Since the invention of SSL/TLS technology, requesting, installing and managing SSL Certificates [2] on servers has been a manual process. Some parts of these time consuming activities have been automated and some ‘solutions’ have tried to offer complete automation, but in doing so, have undermined the integrity and security of the environment.

Reliable SSL Life cycle Automation

[1] Although the AACD™ system automates the life cycle of all the Certificates on a device or server, it does so without having any impact on how the CA [3]/RA Validates your organization. As explained in 2.1.2, reliable Certificate vendors will follow strict Validation procedures to protect the integrity and trust of the Certificates they issue. As the amount of time that the Validation process takes is an ‘unknown variable’, the AACD™ system ensures sufficient notice is given to the CA so that this does not interrupt the timely delivery of the SSL.

The Four Components of AACD™

AACD™ does not require extensive installation and configuration of a central server in order to function correctly simply because there is none. Nor does it require individual configuration of every server on the network either (a single DSSA™ [4] can be installed on multiple servers). And nor does it require customized formatting and configuration or compiling to create users, user groups, access controls or reporting.

There are three principle components of the AACD™ that form the Trust Triangle [5] and their simplicity is explained in the following sub sections:

Certificate Authority [CA] [6]
Certificate Services Gateway [CSG™] [7]
Daemon or Server Side Software™ [DSSA™] [4]

Then there is the optional network scanning service available on the CSG™ if required:

Certificate Discovery Search Engine™ [CDSE™] [8]