Certificates and cryptographic keys are the foundation of every organization’s digital security. And for HPE Nonstop they are central to providing secure remote access via SSL and SSH, both for system administrators and knowledge workers. But as the volume of certs and keys grows, and rotations become more frequent, legacy ways of managing them look increasingly outdated.
To reduce security, compliance and resilience risks, HPE Nonstop customers need a better way to manage their keys and certificates. They need a centralized and automated mechanism from a trusted supplier.
Times are changing
Every service using SSL/TLS requires a key and a corresponding certificate in order to encrypt data and prove its identity. It’s as true for remote access to Nonstop terminals, and traffic between terminals, as it is for users accessing an online banking website. For security reasons these keys and certs need to be rotated frequently — as do SSH keys for short-lived access sessions.
The challenge is twofold: volume and frequency.
- HPE Nonstop organizations already manage hundreds or potentially thousands of certs/keys. And that number is set to grow during a lengthy post-quantum computing (PQC) transition, in which many organizations will need to use crypto/PQC hybrids for extra security. It means that each service will have at least two certificates and keys, one pair for the classic crypto and one for PQC.
- The direction of travel for the SSL/TLS ecosystem is shorter certificate lifespans. These almost halved in March 2026 to 200 days. And in less than a year’s time they will halve again to 100 days. In March 2029 the figure will go down to just 47 days. This means more frequent rotations for everyone.
While good for security, these changes will turn an operational headache into an unsustainable burden for HPE Nonstop customers that persist with manual ways of managing their certificates and keys.
Manual processes can’t keep up
Rotating a key/cert once it’s expired rather than pre-empting that event creates immediate business impact. Even the biggest firms have suffered embarrassing outages as a result of expired certs. But while the incidents which impact customer-facing services are the ones that attract the most attention, the risk to internal systems is just as high — perhaps even more so, as businesses focus their efforts on higher-profile services.
If SSL/SSH certs expire, administrators and business users will not be able to remotely access their HPE Nonstop systems, and terminals will not be able to communicate with each other. Both scenarios would have IT teams scrambling for a fix. Yet they are increasingly commonplace for organizations that manage their certs and keys manually.
They may not have visibility into which certs/keys exist, where they are installed, who owns them, and when they expire. They may miss renewal dates, install the wrong certs and make configuration errors that increase security and operational risk. The manual effort spent on renewals and fixing errors could be better spent elsewhere.
How comforte’s TAMUNIO Assure helps
This is where TAMUNIO Assure comes in. It offers an automated way to handle the full certificate lifecycle, with auto-issue, auto-renew, and policy-driven rotation. This reduces operational overheads, eliminates errors, and minimizes the risk of downtime. Even better, it frees IT staff to work on higher value strategic tasks.
This isn’t just a business-enabling tool, it also keeps regulators happy. Although few directly specify automated certificate lifecycle management, they do demand the outcomes TAMUNIO Assure delivers. That is: maintaining valid certs and keys, rotating these certs/keys according to policy, preventing disruptions caused by expired certs, and maintaining audit trails.
We think TAMUNIO Assure could save up to 90% of time previously spent on certificate rotation. And up to 70% of the associated operational costs. Better still, it’s part of a holistic offering which delivers a drop in, post-quantum ready upgrade for SSH/SSL plus centralized key/cert/secrets management.
Prepare your business for the future, today.
