UI Updates and New Bulk SAN Ordering Make Certificate Management Easier

This weekend we released an update to the Managed SSL section of our certificate management platform. If you’re a customer, you got a sneak peek of these changes already, but now that they’re live, we can share with the rest of the world. So, what’s new?

New User Interface for the Managed SSL Home Screen

We’ve completely revamped the home screen of our Managed SSL section, adding a new tile-based dashboard and streamlining the side menu items. The redesign brings the most common actions and reporting needs front and center, including (screenshot below for reference):

• Items that need immediate attention, such as upcoming renewals, expiring domains, and pending approvals, are easily accessible through dynamic, color-coded tiles (ranging from: green = “all good, no actions needed” to red = “PAY ATTENTION TO THIS”).
• One click access to certificate and domain reporting.
• One click access to SAN usage - identify all SANs used in certificates, including dedicated reports for SAN license users (more on this below).
• Vetted profile tile(s), including one click access to order certificates for that profile, add new domains, manage domains, and more (e.g. edit profile, edit the public ordering page, upgrade the vetting level).

Example Managed SSL home screen in GlobalSign’s certificate management platform.

You’ll notice all of these changes are geared around streamlining SSL administration. We get it; you have better things to do with your time than manage certificates. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to log in and do what you need to do and then move on to other tasks.

Changes to the Ordering Process – New Bulk SAN Ordering and Validation

We’ve re-ordered and combined the steps for ordering a certificate to improve the flow and speed of the process. Recently, we’ve noticed a major increase in Subject Alternative Names (SANs) usage, both the number of companies relying on SANs and the number of SANs used per certificate. Because of this, one of our major focuses for this redesign was to make SAN ordering much easier and more scalable.

You now have the ability to order SANs in bulk by entering up to 500 line-separated items. Our system parses and validates these, summarizing the results by type and associated costs directly on the same screen. If there’s an issue with any of the SANs entered, you’ll see an explanation of what went wrong so you can quickly fix your issues.

Example bulk SAN order in GlobalSign’s certificate management platform.

A Note on SAN Licensing

I mentioned SAN licenses above in the home screen section. What’s a SAN license? It’s one of our newer pricing models where you pay a flat fee for a set number of active SANs, which you can swap out as needed. This set up provides greater flexibility (you can add or remove SANs or Wildcards easily and replace old ones without incurring more costs) and can help with budgeting (you only have one cost to set up and manage).

We’ve had many customers switch over to this model already (and new customers come to us because of it), particularly those with changing server inventories or who perform periodic server re-builds. SAN licensing is great for companies that:

• Need to secure servers for shorter periods of time (e.g. less than 4-6 months on average),
• Need to support trial accounts or other limited use servers,
• Want flexibility to trade in unused SANs and re-use them for new FQDNs (Fully Qualified Domain Names),
• Want a varying mix of wildcard and FQDN SANs, or
• Need multiple certificates containing the same FQDN.

As I mentioned above, if you opt for a SAN licensing model, we make it very easy to see how many of your allotted SANs you are currently using. Just click the “View SAN License Usage” button on the home screen to generate a report.

Example SAN License Usage report in GlobalSign’s certificate management platform.

SSL Management Shouldn’t Be a Burden

We are continually evaluating and evolving our products and platforms to make SSL and PKI management easier for everyone – from the smallest mom and pop shop to the largest enterprise. We believe our latest changes will save our customers significant time and make their lives easier in general.

Stay tuned for more upgrades to other areas of certificate management platform – SSL was just the start!

Want to know more about how we can help you discover, track, and manage your SSL Certificates? Check out our solution overview contact us directly.