Automated certificate lifecycle management (CLM) and digital certificates specialist Sectigo has announced a new partnership with UK cyber security distributor Kite.
The agreement will see Kite distribute Sectigo’s CLM platform Sectigo Certificate Manager to the UK channel with the aim of helping organizations establish and retain digital trust.
The cloud-based platform issues and manages the lifecycles of digital certificates issued by Sectigo and other certificate authorities (CAs) to help secure human and machine identities across the enterprise.
In an announcement, Sectigo said the implementation of the solution will improve the efficiency of organizational resources.
“This collaboration enables UK organizations to leverage the advantages of Sectigo’s best-in-class certificate lifecycle management platform, to establish digital trust,” said Ottavio Camponeschi, vice president for EMEA at Sectigo.
“Our solution will instantly enhance the efficiency and efficacy of organizational security resources. Both Sectigo and Kite Distribution stand as trusted partners for UK organizations of all sizes and will grow even more prominent as organizations seek partners with proven expertise and cutting-edge technology solutions.”
The move follows hot on the heels of a brace of appointments across ecommerce and partner sales for Sectigo, with Rob Charlebois taking the role of VP of growth and Jairo Fraile becoming VP of partner sales.
Former Symantec and McAfee executive Christopher Bray also took over the role of SVP partner and ecommerce sales at Sectigo in May this year - part of a levelling up of the company’s commitment to the channel.
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The channel push comes as the shift towards certificates with shorter durations poses a “significant and expensive challenge” for organizations of all sizes, Sectigo said.
Back in February, Google revealed its intention to shorten the maximum allowed validity of public certificates by 77%, from 398 days down to 90 days, resulting in a need for five times the number of digital certificates to be managed.
These short-duration certificates, combined with a rising need for cryptographic services, are driving a greater need for automated digital certificate management. Stuart Nairne-Clark, Kite’s business development director, said the collaboration will help tackle these issues, as well as drive company growth.
“Kite has operated successfully in the CLM sector for several years. However, with organizations like Google driving change in the industry by mandating 90-day certificate lifespans, we believe this market is on the cusp of experiencing immense growth,” he said,
“Kite is working with the channel to ensure that they understand the potential disruption and the resulting opportunity available to those partners who ensure they prepare for changes that will impact digital trust.”
