Venafi Technology Network Changes the Way Machine Identities Are Managed

Today marks an important milestone for our customers and technology partners that make up an incredibly vibrant and growing ecosystem: Venafi is launching the Venafi Technology Network. The Venafi Technology Network is much more than just another partner program. It’s changing the way Global 5000 organizations think about how they manage and protect machine identities. 

To help demonstrate this change, I’ll share some personal experiences.

Almost twenty years ago, I was working in Germany helping TeleCash setup and deploy keys and certificates. Every part of the process was manual and error prone. In fact, getting a simple web server online with HTTPS was not simple at all. From key generation and certificate requests to installations and confirmations, the entire process was a lot of work and could take hours.

I’d need to use more certificate authority interfaces than the average application administrator would ever want (or should have) to access. I’d have to get usernames and passwords for the systems where I was installing keys and certificates. And even though I did this every day, I might still botch something straightforward like: command-line key generation, certificate signing requests (CSR), installation commands or application restarts.

Oh, and I forgot one thing: if I used SSH keys for authentication, I’d definitely never change them and I’d make sure to leave copies on my workstation and laptop so I could get access from anywhere. Let’s just hope the SSH keys were removed from authorized key lists – I’m sure they were (fingers crossed).   

Fast forward to 2017.

The Venafi platform and the Venafi Technology Network have changed everything about this experience. Now it’s easy to deploy keys and certificates for the entire application stack. In just seconds, I can deploy an internal application key and certificate to IBM WebSphere from a Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Server. I can just as easily deploy a public key and certificate issued from Entrust and installed on 30 of F5 Big-IPs, and then to Palo Alto NGFWs, Imperva WAFs, and Symantec SSL Visibility Appliances.

And the best part: every system is updated to make sure no encrypted traffic eludes inspection for threats.

Now, the entire process can be automated across the ecosystem in seconds. I never have to touch the terminal or make a mistake. In addition, if I’m using DevOps platforms, I can orchestrate all of this with native integrations and complete APIs and recipes. Everything will be updated automatically after ninety days, according to our enterprise policy. No human will touch anything or be put in a position to make an error prone decision

Working with technology leaders, Venafi has made what would have seemed like science fiction in 1998 a reality today. The Venafi Technology Network has already shown a tremendous impact on the security and efficiency of keys and certificates.

And the future is even brighter. More and more technology partners are building Adaptable Drivers. Integrations built using Venafi’s powerful Adaptable Driver framework take much less time to develop: 80% of the work of building automation for both applications and CAs is already completed before a developer starts work. Additionally, Venafi’s REST API technology makes complex two-way multi-step applications easy to create using some of the best documentation available in the industry.

But, we’re not going to rest on these laurels. There is still more to come. We have major new partnership announcements right around the corner. These advancements will make managing machine identities faster, easier, and more secure than ever before. Go check out the latest integrations on the Venafi Technology Network.

Or, if you are a partner interested in joining the Venafi Technology Network, you can sign up here.

How well are you managing your machine identities across your security ecosystem?