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Kousec Software Releases Free Server Cert Manager

Securing your systems with SSL is becoming more and more important as networks increase in size and malware is released. Many IT administrators face difficulties when trying to implement more than one SSL certificate across their infrastructure. This causes improper and insecure management of certificates and keys and expiration errors to occur more often. While some SSL providers have noticed this problem and released tools to help with this, like Entrust’s Certificate Management Service or Trustwave’s Certificate Lifecycle Management, they either lack major features or cost significantly more than what small businesses can afford. Likely, the most comprehensive cert manager solutions are Venafi’s encryption management products, but they are often overkill for smaller companies and are very costly.

There is now a cheaper alternative. Kousec Software has recently released a free Server Cert Manager that allows you to easily request, install, monitor, and manage server certs on your systems.

Kousec Cert Manager Features

Features and Benefits

You can quickly create cert definitions and generate a key pair and a CSR. You can also import existing certificates.
You can create cert definitions for different kinds of certificates including UC Certificates, Wildcard Certificates, and EV certificates from many different certificate providers.
You can quickly purchase a certificate from your chosen provider and record which certificate product you purchased.
You can deploy certs to IIS 6 and IIS 7 using a one-click certificate installer.
You can verify the SSL Certificate installation.
You can monitor deployed certificates and be notified when each cert needs to be renewed.
You can issue certificates with one click using the built-in private CA.

Caveats

While the Cert Manager provides incredible value for many environments, it is not for everyone. There are a few drawbacks to the Cert Manager that you should consider:

The free basic edition will only manage up to five server certificates
Certificate deployment is not as automated as more expensive solutions like Venafi’s management products
Automatic deployment is limited to the most common server platforms such as IIS, Exchange, and Java

Keep in mind that some of these drawbacks will be fixed as the Server Cert Manager is developed.

The following screenshots of the Server Cert Manager demonstrate the features and interface:

Cert Manager Screenshot 1