Preventing downtime from certificate expiration: a strategic guide for CISOs

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Executive Summary

Certificate expiration remains one of the most preventable yet persistent causes of enterprise downtime in 2025. Despite advances in automation and certificate lifecycle management (CLM) tools, organizations continue to experience costly outages from expired certificates. Recent data shows that 45% of enterprises suffered certificate-related downtime in the past year, with average recovery costs reaching $15 million per incident and downtime costing $9,000 per minute.

This whitepaper provides CISOs with a comprehensive strategy to eliminate certificate expiration downtime. Key findings include:

• Certificate volumes have exploded, with most enterprises managing 1,000-10,000+ certificates across hybrid environments

• Manual tracking methods fail at scale, causing 37.5% of certificate incidents

• Industry-mandated shorter lifespans (dropping to 47 days by 2029) will multiply renewal frequency

• Automation and centralized CLM platforms reduce outage risk by up to 80%

• CEO-level governance and workflow redesign correlate most strongly with preventing certificate downtime

The guide outlines proven approaches including automated discovery and renewal, proactive monitoring, policy enforcement, and incident response planning. By implementing these strategies, organizations can transform certificate management from a reactive scramble into a predictable, automated process that protects business continuity.

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