Certificate lifecycle management and secrets: what IAM teams need now

TL;DR: Certificate lifecycle management is now being treated as part of a broader identity security stack that includes secrets management, encryption keys, and just-in-time access, according to Akeyless. The operational question is no longer whether certificates renew automatically, but whether machine identity, secrets, and key control are governed as one programme rather than scattered across tools.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Akeyless: Akeyless vs Keyfactor and the case for unified certificate lifecycle management

By the numbers:

• Only 44% of organisations are currently using a dedicated secrets management system.

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams govern certificates, secrets, and keys together?

A: Teams should treat certificates, secrets, and keys as one machine identity surface and assign shared ownership for issuance, rotation, revocation, and audit.

Q: Why do fragmented machine identity tools increase operational risk?

A: Fragmented tools increase risk because no single system can prove which credentials are active, which are stale, and which controls failed to trigger.

Q: What should organisations check before adopting unified machine identity platforms?

A: Organisations should check whether the platform truly centralises policy, logging, and lifecycle events, or whether it still depends on hidden integrations for critical functions.

Practitioner guidance

• Define machine identity ownership across certificate, secret, and key domains Assign one accountable owner for each certificate chain, secret store, and encryption key family so lifecycle events do not fall between teams.
• Map tool overlap and lifecycle gaps Inventory all platforms that issue certificates, store secrets, or manage keys, then identify where policy, logging, and offboarding are duplicated or missing.
• Test custody assumptions for managed key material Verify whether any operator, support process, or indirect integration can reconstruct full key material or bypass expected custody controls.

What's in the full article

Akeyless's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• Feature-by-feature comparison of certificate lifecycle, secrets management, and encryption key management in one platform
• Discussion of ACMEv2 support, FIPS 140-2 Level 3 HSMs, and hybrid TLS 1.3 readiness
• Specific positioning on how Zero-Knowledge and Distributed Fragments Cryptography change the custody model
• Table-level breakdown of provisioning, renewal, revocation, and discovery capabilities

👉 Read Akeyless's analysis of certificate lifecycle management and unified identity security →

Certificate lifecycle management and secrets: what IAM teams need now?

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