OpenXPKI Use-Cases

Digital certificates are the backbone of secure enterprise communications. However, as infrastructure grows—servers, network components, mobile devices, containers, virtual machines—the complexity of the certificate lifecycle also increases. Manual processes do not scale, and missed renewals lead to outages.

An enterprise PKI based on OpenXPKI addresses precisely these challenges: It combines the flexibility of an internally operated certificate authority with the level of automation required by a professional IT operation.

Whether field devices, controllers, sensors, or connected vehicle components: IoT devices communicate over potentially insecure networks and must be able to authenticate themselves reliably—from the moment they are first powered on until the end of their operational life. Manual certificate management is not an option when dealing with hundreds to millions of devices. What is needed is fully automated certificate provisioning that covers both manufacturing and ongoing operations.

OpenXPKI has been in productive use in exactly this scenario for years—cost-effective, scalable, and field-proven.

Technologically sophisticated products often need to be integrated into the operator’s systems or communicate with them at the point of use. This requires certificates whose security level meets today’s requirements. OpenXPKI enables the creation of a customized and robust PKI for the entire product lifecycle.

Today’s complex products consist of networked components that must communicate securely with one another: subsystems within a device connected via an internal network; instances orchestrated by a central platform—such as a telephone system, a mobile device management system, or a distributed control architecture. Wherever your product is intended to run in unknown customer environments and requires internal certificates, the question arises: Where do they come from—and who manages them throughout the product’s entire lifecycle?