Azure PKI is a cloud-based Certificate Authority specially designed for Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure. Its primary function is to facilitate the creation and management of digital certificates tailor-made for applications residing in the cloud. EZCA, our Azure PKI, does this through some really cool integrations like Azure IoT, Azure Key Vault, automatic AAD Application certificate rotation, and Sentinel.
But what exactly can Azure PKI do for you?
Just as a trusted authority might issue a driver’s license or passport, Azure PKI is responsible for issuing digital certificates that affirm the identity of your cloud applications. But its role doesn’t stop there. Over time, certificates can expire, and Azure PKI handles the renewal process to ensure continuous security.
Security in the digital realm is fluid. Sometimes, due to unforeseen circumstances, certificates need to be revoked before they naturally expire. Azure PKI maintains and publishes CRLs, a crucial record that denotes which certificates are no longer valid or trustworthy.
With the dynamic nature of cloud environments, staying on top of the health and status of your certificates becomes essential. Azure PKI offers monitoring capabilities, allowing you to be proactive and alert about the certificates’ validity and potential security concerns.
While organizations always aim for top-tier security in production environments, there’s often a need for certificates in development and test environments that don’t require external validation. Azure PKI steps in here as well, enabling users to generate self-signed certificates. These are perfect for internal testing and developmental work, ensuring that the actual production environment remains uncompromised.
Azure PKI has a multitude of great features, as mentioned above. What makes Azure PKI so great for organizations, though, is its scalability, security and cost-effectiveness. With Azure PKI, your organization can save money while having access to those aforementioned awesome features. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Azure PKI is meticulously crafted to cater to a broad spectrum of organizational needs, ranging from startups to multinational corporations. Recognizing that the digital requirements of businesses evolve over time, Azure PKI offers unparalleled flexibility.
In a nutshell, Azure PKI’s design philosophy centers around adaptability. It acknowledges the dynamic nature of businesses and offers a scalable solution that can effortlessly adjust to fluctuating needs, making it a fitting choice for organizations of every size and stage.
Azure PKI isn’t just about managing digital certificates; it’s a platform that brings advanced security tools to the forefront, specifically via such features as 2FA and certificate pinning. Together, these features, along with Azure PKI’s core offerings, form a robust shield, significantly bolstering the security posture of your data and applications in the cloud.
Azure PKI streamlines the otherwise complex landscape of digital certificates, allowing you to deploy certificates with ease, centralize certificate management, and save tons of money. In essence, Azure PKI provides a seamless experience that translates to efficient operations, leading to both time and financial savings for organizations. Who doesn’t love that?
Is your organization ready to start using Azure PKI? Great! Implementing Azure PKI within your organization can be a little tricky, so we wanted to provide you with a brief overview of the necessary steps:
1) Register the Keytos application in your tenant. By doing this, you allow EZCA to authenticate your users.
2) Create your EZCA instance in Azure.
3) Create your first Azure CA.
Yes, that’s really it! In just three simple steps, you can implement Azure PKI throughout your organization.
EZCA, the best CA for Azure, is the best third-party PKI to use if you want to connect to Azure PKI. With EZCA, you can run and scale your very own private CA service without needing to account for the magnitude of costs associated with operating one (e.g., investment and maintenance). It doesn’t matter if you are creating a brand-new private PKI hierarchy or chaining to a preexisting PKI hierarchy – EZCA makes the creation and maintenance process easy.
To see how EZCA can help your organization’s use case, schedule a FREE consultation with one of our PKI experts today!
