Automated Certificate Management Solution

Tender description

To help the DaS Directorate manage the number of certificates owned/used. Lot 1: NSS, along with many other businesses, utilise SSL/TLS certificates in order that users may establish and confirm the identity of our websites over the Internet or private networks; ultimately securing network communications. The governing body for certificate-based communication is the Certificate Authority/Browser Forum (CA/B Forum). It brings together representatives from certificate-issuing authorities, major web browser providers, and software developers. The forum includes key industry leaders such as Google and Apple. In April this year, The CA/B Forum officially voted to amend the TLS Baseline Requirements and initiate a process of certificate lifetime shortening, as per the following: - As of March 15, 2026, the maximum lifetime for a TLS certificate will be 200 days. - As of March 15, 2027, the maximum lifetime for a TLS certificate will be 100 days. - As of March 15, 2029, the maximum lifetime for a TLS certificate will be 47 days. As a result of which, given the number of certificates we own/use (more than 250) it will no longer be practical to continue to renew these manually, as per our current process. To help manage this situation, an SBAR has been approved by DaS Directorate to progress with the purchase of a cloud hosted automated certificate management solution