It is important that your automation aligns with broader organizational goals. Ask yourself: What problems are you solving? Are you trying to reduce downtime caused by expired certificates, improve security, or scale to meet growing demands? Define what success looks like and put success metrics in place against it.  For example percentage reduction in manual errors, cost and time savings, or compliance standards met. 

Understanding where you are now is critical to determining where you need to go. It is the starting point you can measure your success against.  Consider:  Volume and Frequency: How many certificates do you manage, and how often do they require renewal?  Pain Points: Are you facing issues with tracking expiration dates, delays in issuance, or frequent renewal errors?  Complexity: Evaluate the types of certificates you manage—SSL/TLS, S/MIME, or Code Signing— who supplies them and what is their specific requirements. 

At the end of the day digital certificates are all about trust and security. Automation must maintain or enhance your security posture.   Key Management: How will private keys be generated, stored, and rotated? Look for robust encryption and secure key storage mechanisms.  Access Controls: Define who has access to the automation tools and enforce least privilege policies.  Compliance: Does your organization adhere to regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS? Ensure the automation solution supports these standards. 

Automation tools must integrate seamlessly with your existing tech stack. From experience, this is often the most critical factor and will determine whether automation is even feasible. Ensure the system you choose provides support across operating systems, browsers, and device types. Also, assess whether it has failover mechanisms to handle outages. 

There are many tools out there, and the fact is that not all tools are created equal. Look for capabilities that align with your specific needs to make sure you don’t buy a sledgehammer to crack a nut. For example, if you only need to automate SSL / TLS certificates GlobalSign’s ACME service might be enough. However, if you manage various types of certificates and need features like automated issuance, renewal, revocation, expiration tracking, permissions, and complex reporting, you might require a more comprehensive solution like GlobalSign’s Certificate Automation Manager. 

Your automation platform is only as reliable as the vendor behind it. Trust is key. Beyond the usual considerations of support, customer service, and price, evaluate the following:  Flexibility: Each system is different, so your vendor must adapt their solution to your requirements. Research vendors with a proven track record in digital certificate management.  Digital Trust: Assess the vendor’s chain of trust. Do they have root ubiquity? How many incidents have they reported, and how quickly did they respond?  Longevity: While innovation is valuable, trust grows over time. A vendor with a long-standing reputation in digital identity demonstrates expertise, stability, and consistent customer trust. 

Automation is not just a technological shift—it changes how your team operates. While automation saves time and money, you’ll still need to monitor and manage the system.  Does your team have the necessary skills? If not, can the provider help upskill them?  Which other teams in your organization will be impacted?  How will you communicate these changes?  A  platforms with robust dashboards and alerting capabilities will help you manage the change as well as minimize downtime. 

Start small to evaluate performance and compatibility. Run a small-scale pilot to validate the tool’s capabilities in your environment. Test for compatibility, performance, and security vulnerabilities before full deployment. 

The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and your automation tools should keep up. You will want a tool that has the ability to react to your business needs;, scaling up, down or changing direction all together. Any vendor you choose must be well versed in current regulation as well as  prepared for developments like post-quantum cryptography.