It’s no secret that in competitive situations vendors present comparison information to help influence buying decisions. This comparison information is often feature or functionality based with some FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) thrown in. But, feature by feature competitive analysis is really just comparing apples to apples. While requesting this information from the vendors you are evaluating can be a necessary check in the box to validate product capabilities, you should not buy on feature and functionality analysis alone.
The reason for this blog is that you need to select the “right” certificate lifecycle management solution for your unique requirements. Choosing a rigid “square peg” product to fit into your “round hole” environment is a decision you will regret. Your environment is unique and you must choose a solution that is robust, flexible and customizable that works together with your technology and supports your teams.
When investigating enterprise-grade certificate lifecycle management solutions, there are really only three vendors, Venafi, Keyfactor and AppViewX. And, at the feature and functionality level, all three certificate lifecycle management solutions are basically equal to one another. All of our solutions discover, inventory, and automate the management of certificate lifecycles to reduce manual labor, eliminate outages and security weaknesses and promote crypto agility.
Learn how to transform your CLM model in a proven systematic way
So, how can you make the right choice? You must go deeper in your evaluation. While a tailored demo is a good starting point, a proof of concept (POC) or proof of value (POV) that installs the product in your environment will be the only way to truly see if it is the right fit for you. Here are some criteria to consider while going through your POC/POV.
Architecture
What’s the underlying foundation of the product? Is it built on an extensible modern microservices platform? Is automation at the core of the solution? Is it a fully functional SaaS product?
Visibility and Alignment
Can the solution provide certificate visibility across complex hybrid multi-cloud infrastructures (AWS, GCP, Azure) and cloud-native Kubernetes container environments? Can it provide self-service capabilities to align cross-functional teams (PKI, IAM, SecOps, DevOps, NetOps, CloudOps, applications, etc.)?
Time to Value
Can the solution deliver rapid time to value? Does the solution offer out-of-the-box automation workflows to get you started right away managing certificates in the most complex environments?
Customization
Can you customize the solution to fit your specific requirements? Can you easily create your own custom automation workflows for your unique use cases?
Flexibility
Does the solution offer flexible deployment options (on-prem, private cloud, SaaS)? Does the SaaS version support multi-tenancy? Can you purchase the solution on AWS, GCP and Azure marketplaces?
Integrations
Does the solution offer integrations with your existing technology (ITSM, SIEM, HSMs, CAs, CI/CD, etc.)? Are the integrations plug-and-play and out-of-the-box? Are APIs offered for more custom integrations?
Expandability
Does the vendor’s platform offer more automation solutions to other critical challenges? Can the vendor’s platform help consolidate tools and streamline automation processes?
See why AppViewX is the “right” choice
So, why choose a legacy square peg certificate lifecycle management vendor to fit into your round hole environment? With true multi-tenant cloud and container support, scalability to manage hundreds to millions of digital identities (certificates and encryption keys), hundreds of out-of-the-box automated workflows and the ability to easily create customized workflows, only AppViewX delivers zero trust machine identity management, your way!
As a next-generation automated certificate lifecycle management (CLM) solution that simplifies PKI and certificate management, AppViewX combines the best of automation, security, and insights to meet all enterprise PKI needs. The AppViewX solution is purpose-built to address both the operational and security challenges of certificate and machine identity management to help organizations prevent application outages, eliminate security weaknesses and maintain compliance.
Contact AppViewX today to see why our solution is different and the right choice for you. Request your live AppViewX demo.
