Reduced Cost Of Certificate-Related Incidents

Evidence and data. Interviewees consistently reported a significant reduction in the volume of certificate-related outages after adopting centralized certificate lifecycle management. Prior to implementation, expired or misconfigured certificates frequently caused service disruptions, failed integrations, and emergency remediation efforts. These incidents often required a coordinated response across multiple teams, including certificate management, network operations, and cybersecurity, increasing both direct resolution costs and indirect business impact.

Interviewees highlighted that while many certificate-related incidents were operational in nature, a meaningful proportion were classified as serious incidents due to financial or reputational consequences beyond the immediate cost of resolution. Across all types of incidents, the lack of centralized visibility and automated controls increased the mean time to resolution and amplified downstream impact for the interviewees’ organizations. Certificates are classified in three levels based on severity, as shown in the table below.

According to interviewees, core CLM capabilities drove reductions in incident cost in the following ways:

• Centralized discovery and inventory reduced the likelihood of unknown or unmanaged certificates.

• Automated monitoring and alerts prevented expiry-driven outages.

• Policy-based issuance and renewal reduced configuration errors and drift.

• Improved visibility enabled faster diagnosis and a more coordinated response across teams.

Interviewees said together, these capabilities materially reduced both the frequency of certificate-related incidents and the effort required to resolve them when they occurred.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Prior to adoption of the AVX platform, the composite organization experienced approximately a dozen certificate-related incidents, including L1, L2, and L3 events, per year.

• After implementing the AVX platform, incident frequency drops to one certificate-related incident per year. This incident is classified as an L2 incident, as automated discovery, monitoring, and renewal are adopted across the environment.

• Incident resolution time is an average of 2.5 hours per incident with resolution teams spanning multiple functions.

• The hourly financial impact per L3 incident is $336,000.²

• For L1 incidents, four resources are assumed to be involved. L2 incidents require six resources, and L3 incidents require eight resources with both L2 and L3 incurring additional financial impact beyond labor costs.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for a resource involved in resolving L1 and L2 incidents is $60. The fully burdened hourly rate for a resource involved in resolving an L3 incident is $90.

• To remain conservative, only a portion of incidents are classified as L2 and L3. A downward risk adjustment is applied to account for variability in incident severity and adoption maturity.

Risks. This benefit can vary across organizations due to the following:

• Differences in baseline incident frequency and severity.

• Variability in application criticality and customer-facing exposure.

• Existing maturity of monitoring and renewal processes.

• Organizational response models and escalation practices.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $2.4 million.

Increased Efficiency From Certificate Renewal Automation

Evidence and data. Interviewees indicated that their organizations still rely on manual processes to renew a large portion of their digital certificates. Internal certificates often numbered in the tens or hundreds of thousands, while external certificates were typically fewer in number but still required structured renewal processes. Prior to centralized certificate lifecycle management, renewal activities at the interviewees’ organizations commonly involved manual tracking, request submission, coordination across teams, and verification steps. These activities consumed meaningful amounts of skilled staff time and increased the risk of missed renewals or last-minute remediation.

Interviewees consistently reported that manually renewing a certificate requires approximately 30 minutes of effort per certificate. As certificate volumes continued to grow due to cloud adoption, shorter certificate lifetimes, and tighter governance requirements, the labor burden associated with manual renewals increased materially over time.

Interviewees said automation capabilities within certificate lifecycle management platforms drove efficiency gains in the following ways:

• Automated discovery and inventory reduced the need for manual tracking.

• Policy-based renewal workflows eliminated repetitive request and approval tasks.

• Centralized visibility simplified exception handling and reporting.

• Integration with certificate authorities streamlined issuance and renewal processes.

These capabilities allowed the interviewees’ organizations to scale certificate volumes without a proportional increase in operational effort.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization manually renews approximately 10,000 certificates actively managed by the AVX platform. External certificates represent a small proportion of the total, while internal certificates account for most of the renewal activity.

• The manual renewal effort is estimated at 30 minutes per certificate.

• The average validity of external certificates due to new certificate validity mandates from CA/Browser Forum is 318 days.³

• Certificate volumes grow over time as the composite organization faces shorter certificate validity periods and certificate issuance increased due to cloud workloads and regulatory requirements.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for a resource is $60.

• Benefits increase over the three-year period as certificate volumes rise and automation coverage expands. A conservative risk adjustment is applied to account for differences in maturity and adoption.

Risks. This benefit can vary across organizations due to the following:

• The proportion of certificates that are already renewed automatically.

• Differences in internal versus external certificate mix.

• Variability in certificate lifetimes and governance policies.

• Organizational ability to fully adopt automated renewal workflows.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $1.2 million

Increased Efficiency From New Certificate Provisioning Automation

Evidence and data. Interviewees indicated that while new certificate issuance represented a smaller proportion of overall certificate activity compared to renewals, the provisioning process itself was often highly manual and time-consuming. Prior to adopting centralized certificate lifecycle management, teams at the interviewees’ organizations typically relied on ticket-based workflows, manual validation steps, and coordination across security and infrastructure teams to issue new certificates. This introduced delays and consumed skilled operational resources, particularly as application teams scaled and new services were brought online.

Interviewees consistently reported that the effort required to provision a new certificate was reduced by approximately 90 minutes per certificate after deploying AppViewX. Although the absolute number of new certificates issued each year was relatively modest, the time saved accumulated over time and became more pronounced as application estates grow.

According to interviewees, automation and standardization within the AVX platform drove labor savings in the following ways:

• Self-service and policy driven certificate issuance removed manual request handling.

• Predefined templates and workflows reduced validation and rework.

• Centralized visibility improved coordination between security and delivery teams.

• Integration with certificate authorities accelerated issuance without manual intervention.

Together, these capabilities reduced the time required to provision new certificates and allowed teams to support application growth without a corresponding increase in operational effort.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization provisions about 1,000 new certificates per year.

• After adopting the AVX platform, the average time for manual provisioning is reduced by 90 minutes per certificate.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for a provisioning resource is $60.

• To remain conservative, the model assumes steady growth in new certificate volumes and applies a risk adjustment to reflect differences in automation maturity and adoption. Benefits increase modestly over the three-year period as application growth drives incremental certificate issuance.

Risks. This benefit can vary across organizations due to the following:

• The extent to which new certificate provisioning is already partially automated.

• Differences in application growth rates and certificate issuance patterns.

• Variability in workflow integration with security and infrastructure tooling.

• Organizational consistency in adopting standardized provisioning processes.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $221,000.

Increased Efficiency From Reducing Certificate-Induced Deployment Delays

Evidence and data. Interviewees highlighted certificate provisioning delays as a recurring bottleneck in application deployment cycles. Prior to using the AVX platform, their application teams often waited days for certificates to be issued, approved, and deployed across environments. These delays affected both security-focused developers responsible for certificate requests and DevOps or release engineers managing deployment pipelines and environment updates. As a result, skilled technical resources spent time waiting or coordinating workarounds rather than progressing higher-value security or delivery tasks.

Interviewees said their organizations reported materially faster end-to-end provisioning. By streamlining issuance workflows and removing manual handoffs, teams reduced friction in the deployment process and improved overall delivery velocity.

Interviewees reported that several CLM capabilities reduced deployment delays in the following ways:

• Centralized and automated certificate provisioning eliminated manual request and approval cycles.

• Policy-driven workflows reduced queuing and rework across environments.

• Integration between the AVX platform and information technology service management (ITSM) or deployment tooling accelerated handoffs between security and delivery teams.

• Improved visibility into certificate status reduced troubleshooting and follow-up effort during deployments.

Together, these capabilities shortened the time required to provision certificates and removed a common dependency that slowed application releases.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization

• The composite organization has a growing portfolio of enterprise applications that require certificates for deployment and operation.

• For each new application, two technical resources are impacted by certificate provisioning delays.

• The AVX platform reduces the end-to-end provisioning timeline by approximately 1.5 days, including technical issuance, workflow queues, and approval steps.

• To remain conservative, the model assumes that only half of the time saved is redirected to productive activities.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for resource is $60.

• A risk adjustment is applied to account for variability in adoption and integration maturity.

Risks. This benefit can vary across organizations due to the following:

• The extent to which certificate provisioning is currently manual versus already partially automated.

• The level of integration between certificate management tooling and ITSM or deployment pipelines.

• Differences in application architecture and deployment frequency across teams.

• The ability of organizations to redeploy saved time into higher-value security or delivery activities.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $128,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Improved time to value for applications and integrations. Interviewees noted that delays in certificate provisioning, renewal, or remediation could slow releases and defer market entry. While interviewees broadly agreed that faster delivery would create downstream business value, they were unable to provide sufficient evidence to quantify revenue impact with confidence. As a result, time to value was treated as an unquantified benefit. AppViewX reduced friction in certificate-dependent workflows, helping the interviewees’ organizations move applications into production faster and with fewer operational delays.

• Supported post-quantum cryptography preparedness. Interviewees highlighted that post-quantum cryptography readiness emerged as a strategic priority over time. AppViewX helped surface industry developments and enabled their organizations to begin planning migration paths. Support for hybrid environments, including both legacy and post-quantum algorithms, was viewed as essential to enabling a smooth transition. Cleaning up certificate debt and standardizing workflows were seen as foundational steps toward future cryptographic agility.

• Enhanced audit readiness and regulatory compliance. Interviewees emphasized that audit readiness has become more demanding over time. Auditors were increasingly asking specific questions about certificate usage, ownership, lifecycle controls, and renewal practices, particularly in regulated industries such as healthcare and financial services. Prior to using AppViewX, responding to these requests often required manual investigation across teams and systems at the interviewees’ organizations.
  Interviewees said the AVX platform simplified audit preparation for their organizations by providing centralized dashboards and structured reporting that allowed their teams to demonstrate control and compliance more efficiently, even when audits were infrequent.

• Ensured policy adherence and governance at scale. Interviewees emphasized stronger governance through workflow-enforced standards. They said AppViewX embedded certificate naming conventions, ownership assignment, and approval controls directly into request and issuance workflows. Tiered expiry notifications and linkage of certificates to applications and teams improved accountability and reduced misconfigurations. Ongoing alignment with CA/Browser Forum changes further reduced noncompliance risk.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement the AVX platform and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Improved operating model resilience under talent constraints. Interviewees and stakeholders emphasized that the value of automation was not primarily about reducing headcount. Cybersecurity and infrastructure teams faced persistent talent shortages, and manual certificate management did not scale under these conditions.
  AppViewX enabled their existing teams to manage growing certificate volumes without proportional increases in staffing. By codifying expertise into automated workflows and centralized controls, the platform allowed the interviewees’ teams to focus on higher-value security and risk initiatives rather than repetitive operational tasks.

• Dynamic policy and control management. AppViewX enabled the interviewees’ organizations to update certificate policies and procedures globally, by use case, by department, or by geographic region. Centralized control allowed changes to be implemented quickly and consistently without requiring manual coordination across teams.

• Adapting to regulatory and industry change. Interviewees noted that the AVX platform helped their organizations respond more effectively to regulatory changes, evolving industry standards, and shifts in certificate lifecycles. Centralized policy management and automation reduced the effort required to implement changes and minimized operational disruption.

• Adapting to application and environment growth. As the interviewees’ organizations expanded cloud usage, modernized applications, or increased machine identity adoption, AppViewX supported new certificate types and workflows without requiring new tooling. APIs and workflow flexibility enabled teams to adapt to changing requirements while maintaining consistent governance.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).