Vendor Lock-in: CLM Shouldn’t Dictate Your CA Choices

Managing SSL certificates effectively is critical for maintaining a secure and resilient IT infrastructure. Yet, many Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions come with an unspoken compromise: they dictate your Certificate Authority (CA) choices, forcing your organization into unnecessary vendor lock-in. This limits flexibility and reduces your control over your own infrastructure. But what if there was a better way?

With SSLBoard, you can reclaim your autonomy. Here’s why that matters:

1. Freedom of Choice in Certificate Issuance

Traditional CLMs often bundle management with certificate issuance, compelling you to use a specific CA or set of processes. This integration might seem convenient at first, but it ultimately restricts your options and flexibility. SSLBoard decouples these functions, allowing you to issue certificates exactly how you prefer—whether that’s via ACME protocols, manual issuance, or a combination of both. Your DevOps teams gain the freedom to select the most efficient and secure issuance methods without compromise.

2. Comprehensive Oversight for Security Operations

Vendor-locked CLM solutions limit your visibility, especially when certificates are issued or renewed outside their proprietary ecosystem. SSLBoard provides continuous monitoring and comprehensive visibility across your entire certificate landscape, regardless of the issuing CA. SecOps teams appreciate the total transparency, proactive alerts, and intuitive dashboards that ensure every certificate is accounted for, secure, and compliant.

3. Simplified Management and Integration

Management teams often fear complexity, and vendor lock-in frequently exacerbates integration challenges, creating additional barriers between services. When issuance and deployment are tightly coupled within a single CLM system, cross-team coordination becomes a bottleneck. SSLBoard enables a model where the teams that deploy can also issue—while management retains visibility and enforces policies. This streamlines operations, reduces miscommunication, and lowers operational overhead. Managers benefit from clearer reporting, fewer integration hurdles, and a smoother overall workflow.

A Better Way Forward

The core value of SSLBoard lies in its neutrality and transparency. By separating management and issuance, SSLBoard enables your organization to operate with greater autonomy, stronger security oversight, and simplified management. Don’t let vendor lock-in compromise your infrastructure’s flexibility, security, and manageability. Choose freedom, visibility, and simplicity with SSLBoard.