Every day, IT teams across large enterprises face an uphill battle against growing volumes of certificate requests. As demands for secure communications increase, managing digital certificates, especially for email encryption, has become a source of constant pressure. Manual processes often drag on for hours or days, forcing IT professionals to juggle expiry warnings, renewal backlogs, and complex provisioning routines. This is inefficient and leaves room for error, creating gaps in security that modern businesses can’t afford.
The administrative weight of S/MIME management, in particular, is heavy. Every secure email sent using S/MIME depends on valid certificates. These need to be issued, tracked, and renewed in a timely way. That responsibility often falls squarely on the shoulders of an already overstretched IT team. Some departments spend more time handling certificates than responding to strategic security issues. In this environment, delays are inconvenient and a significant hazard.
Digital transformation has pushed enterprises to look toward cloud-based encryption and automation. Legacy systems can’t scale to meet the needs of modern hybrid workforces. Cloud-based certificate automation is no longer a fringe concept; it’s becoming standard practice among security-forward enterprises.
Manual Certificate Management Risks
Manual S/MIME certificate management exposes businesses to serious risk. One expired certificate can block access to encrypted communications. A delayed issuance can stall onboarding for new hires. Errors during the renewal process may allow unauthorized emails to slip through, unchecked and unencrypted. At scale, these issues compound quickly.
Enterprises often manage thousands of certificates across departments and geographic regions. These certificates expire on different schedules. Tracking and renewing each one manually increases the chance of human error. Miss a renewal date, and emails go unprotected. Set the wrong permissions, and confidential information may land in the wrong hands.
A 2024 DigiCert report revealed that one in nine companies had no formal certificate management system in place. That leaves sensitive communications vulnerable and adds pressure on IT teams already responsible for supporting infrastructure, onboarding, and compliance efforts. There is a growing consensus: without automation, certificate management becomes unsustainable.
Moving To the Cloud Removes Bottlenecks
IT leaders are increasingly choosing cloud-first encryption platforms to reduce workloads and streamline workflows. Cloud-based S/MIME management offers several advantages over traditional on-premises setups. It enables faster provisioning, simplifies onboarding, and ensures policies are enforced consistently.
Cloud integration also supports broader digital strategies. As companies expand remote work options, IT teams need tools that work across devices and locations. On-prem systems don’t deliver that kind of flexibility. Maintaining them often requires heavy IT intervention and physical access limitations that don’t fit with today’s work patterns.
Echoworx, a leader in secure email solutions, has taken a strong position in this space. Its encryption platform integrates with trusted Certificate Authorities, including DigiCert, to automate certificate requests, issuance, and renewal. This removes friction and helps IT departments reclaim valuable time.
Case Study: How a Private Bank Automated Certificate Chaos and Strengthened Secure Communications
A leading private banking and asset management firm found itself under pressure. Its IT team was overwhelmed by an increasing volume of certificate requests related to S/MIME email encryption. Renewals were being handled manually, and onboarding new users involved issuing credentials one at a time. This system was time-consuming and left too much room for human error, and failed to meet the security expectations of a modern financial institution.
Like many organizations operating in highly regulated industries, the bank needed to comply with technical standards such as RFC 2797. That meant managing S/MIME certificates in a way that ensured strong encryption, authenticity, and compatibility with a range of client-side environments. However, their legacy approach assumed users already had valid private keys and required IT intervention at every step. Delays in provisioning often led to frustrated employees and exposed the institution to unnecessary risk.
To fix this, the firm adopted Echoworx’s cloud-based encryption platform integrated with DigiCert’s certificate authority services. This combination transformed how the IT team approached secure communication. Certificates were now issued automatically, triggered in real time by system events rather than human input. Even senders without pre-existing private keys were able to transmit secure messages instantly, with no delay and no manual handoffs. Each S/MIME message was encrypted, signed, and delivered without requiring IT to lift a finger.
This overhaul produced immediate results. The IT department saw a dramatic reduction in ticket volume related to email encryption. Onboarding processes improved overnight and as such, new hires, contractors, and third-party advisors could begin sending protected emails from day one. Administrative errors dropped, and certificate renewal cycles no longer posed a threat to communication continuity. The solution solved a problem and unlocked new operational efficiency.
Under the hood, the Echoworx platform enabled this transformation with a range of built-in capabilities. It offered scalable S/MIME management across global teams, adapting as the organization added users or expanded into new markets. Its CA integration with DigiCert ensured that certificate issuance and renewal complied with internal policy and international regulations.
The platform’s support for global LDAP directory services played a critical role, too. With this feature, secure communication wasn’t limited to internal teams. The system could identify and verify external recipients on the fly, enabling encrypted collaboration with legal partners, consultants, and regulatory bodies, without sacrificing control or visibility.
Because the platform is cloud-native, the IT team didn’t have to deploy new hardware or maintain on-premises infrastructure. Certificate management became location-independent. Administrators could monitor activity, revoke credentials, or adjust policies from anywhere. That flexibility proved crucial as the bank expanded remote and hybrid work options.
For institutions with advanced security needs, Echoworx also delivered a higher tier of control through its “Manage Your Own Keys” (MYOK) feature, powered by AWS Key Management Service (KMS). This let the bank generate and store its own encryption keys using hardware-grade security, while still benefiting from the elasticity and performance of the cloud. With MYOK, data sovereignty concerns were addressed without compromising user experience.
What began as a solution to eliminate manual certificate renewals ended up streamlining workflows across the organization. The bank reduced certificate-related overheads, and it reinforced the integrity of every message sent. Echoworx provided the automation, integration, and compliance tools that turned a reactive IT function into a proactive security asset. And in a sector where trust, speed, and data protection are essential, that edge mattered.
Better Email Encryption Without IT Burnout
Large enterprises depend on secure communications. But the effort it takes to maintain email encryption at scale can exhaust even experienced IT teams. Every certificate request they handle manually is time taken from more strategic security tasks.
Echoworx solves that problem. Its platform automates what used to be a time sink. Whether a business needs to protect client communications, financial data, or confidential internal messaging, Echoworx delivers encryption that works without getting in the way.
The Echoworx-DigiCert integration is a critical advantage for firms looking to secure every message without overloading staff. It gives organizations a way to streamline workflows, reduce certificate errors, and protect sensitive data, even as user counts climb.
This is a technical upgrade that provides a business advantage. Faster certificate provisioning means faster onboarding, fewer security gaps, and less stress for IT teams. As phishing and business email compromise attacks become more targeted, consistent email encryption has never been more valuable.
The volume of certificate requests won’t slow down, but with the right tools, your IT team doesn’t have to drown in them. Echoworx offers a way out of the manual slog and into a system that just works. With real-time encryption, seamless S/MIME management, and scalable cloud services, it’s a fix your IT team will welcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Echoworx integrate with our existing PKI?
Yes. Echoworx supports standard protocols like RFC 2797 and works with leading Certificate Authorities, including DigiCert.
How long does it take to deploy?
Most enterprises see deployment completed within a few weeks. The platform’s cloud-native model speeds up the process.
Is this suitable for organizations with frequent staff changes?
Absolutely. Echoworx’s automated S/MIME management makes onboarding and offboarding faster and more secure.
What compliance standards does it support?
Echoworx helps organizations comply with GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and other major standards, including support for customer-controlled encryption keys.
