PKI, Public Key Infrastructure, is a comprehensive framework of technologies, policies, and processes used to secure digital communications, authenticate identities, and encrypt data. It manages digital certificates and pairs of public/private keys to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and trust across networks, commonly used in HTTPS, VPNs, and email encryption.

Organizations lacking PKI automation are 2.3 times more likely to experience six plus certificate-related incidents per year — and the business impact is real.

In late 2025, HID conducted a large-scale market study to understand how organizations manage their digital trust programs and where they face the most pressure. We reached out to more than 300 senior leaders across industries and regions, gathering a clear picture of what is working well — and what is not.

One theme stood out immediately: many organizations are struggling with frequent incidents stemming from how their certificate processes are handled. For some, unexpected issues have become a regular part of operations, often occurring every quarter and sometimes more often.

The study revealed a striking difference between organizations that run smoothly and those that experience repeated problems. The dividing line is simple: how much of their certificate management is automated. Those relying on manual work see far more mistakes, delays and operational surprises — those who automate experience fewer disruptions, fewer emergencies, and more predictable operations.

Put plainly: When organizations increase automation, incidents drop. When they don’t, issues pile up.

The Incident Problem: Why PKI Outages Are Increasing

Several forces are accelerating the frequency and impact of certificate-related failures. Shrinking certificate lifespans are one of the biggest drivers. With TLS certificate lifetimes shrinking rapidly, renewal cycles are compressing faster than teams can adapt.

Renewal cycles are compressing faster than most teams can adapt.

Manual renewal workflows simply can’t keep pace. Spreadsheets, email reminders, and disconnected processes create blind spots. Teams lose track of expiring certificates, miss renewal windows, or misconfigure replacement certificates. The result? Service outages, broken integrations, inaccessible applications and trust chain failures that ripple across critical systems.

The 2.3 Times Multiplier: What the Data Reveals

One of the findings in the PKI Market Study is that organizations without PKI automation are 2.3 times more likely to suffer six or more certificate-related incidents per year. These gaps lead to outages and service disruptions across critical systems.

As certificate volume grows, incident frequency increases exponentially. What begins as “only a few missed renewals” rapidly turns into recurring outages as complexity multiplies.

Business Impact: Outages Hurt More Than Uptime Numbers

The consequences of PKI failures extend far beyond short-term downtime. Of organizations with more than three PKI-related incidents last year:

  • One of three, experienced regulatory compliance
  • One of four, experienced security breaches
  • One of four, lost customer trust
  • One of six, had financial loss
  • One of 10, lost customers’ contracts

With regulatory pressure increasing around identity, encryption, and crypto agility, certificate-related failures are no longer considered “technical errors” — they are business risks.

Why Automation Is the #1 Priority Across the Industry

Security leaders overwhelmingly agree: automation is the most important investment area in PKI today. It ranks as the number one trend, number one barrier, and number one planned investment across the organizations surveyed.

Automation alone is not enough — visibility is equally critical. Organizations with centralized monitoring, real-time inventory, and integration to other IT infrastructure report far fewer incidents than those with siloed or partially visible environments.

Dashboards, discovery tools, and alerting systems help identify misconfigurations before they cause outages. In contrast, organizations without unified visibility often operate reactively, noticing issues only when systems break or customers complain.

Visibility and automation together create a proactive PKI posture.

What Good Looks Like: Characteristics of High Maturity PKI Programs

Organizations with the fewest incidents share several characteristics:

  • Automated certificate discovery and inventory across all environments
  • A unified CLM platform that spans across public and private certificates
  • Strong governance, policy enforcement and delegated workflows
  • Real-time alerts, reporting and risk monitoring
  • Early preparation for PQC and crypto agility requirements

This maturity model not only reduces risk — it enables faster innovation.

How HID Helps Organizations Accelerate Their Automation Journey

HID’s PKI-as-a-service (PKIaaS) is designed to help organizations modernize rapidly. With automated issuance, renewal, discovery and monitoring, HID provides the foundational controls needed to prevent outages and maintain trust.

As a globally trusted CA and identity security leader, HID helps organizations build robust, future-ready PKI programs without operational complexity.

PKI has become too critical — and too high-volume — to manage manually. The organizations experiencing the most incidents are the ones relying on outdated processes. Automation reduces outages, strengthens compliance and protects customer trust.

Now is the time to assess your organization’s automation maturity, identify your visibility gaps and prepare your PKI for what comes next.