DigiCert Q&A: AI threats, certificate lifecycle risk and channel strategy

Sophie Milburn: Could you introduce yourself, your role at DigiCert, and give us a brief overview of the company and what it focuses on?

Christian Stanford: My name’s Christian Stanford. I’m the Regional Vice President of EMEA Channels at DigiCert. I’ve been tasked with running the channel team for EMEA and I’m responsible for the regional strategy. While we’ve more recently expanded our focus in the channel, we bring a long-established customer base and strong enterprise heritage. That creates a significant opportunity for partners, who can tap into existing demand while building new business through a collaborative, give-to-get approach.

DigiCert is trusted by thousands of customers globally to deliver intelligent trust, through our comprehensive platform called DigiCert ONE. Out platform brings together PKI, DNS and certificate lifecycle management in one place. It enables organisations to enforce policy, secure AI-driven systems and prevent outages, while managing certificates and trust at scale. The platform is where we are seeing the most partner interest today, bringing together TLS and DNS technologies, while enabling the management of everything DigiCert offers through a single interface. 

Sophie Milburn: Deepfakes, identity-based attacks, and AI-driven exploits are on the rise. What should organisations prioritise to try and safeguard their data and maintain operational resilience today?

Christian Stanford: It is increasingly difficult to tell what is real from what is fake these days. One of the most important priorities is being able to prove where content comes from and whether it has been altered. That is the focus of our new AI technology called Content Trust Manager, which enables organisations to sign and verify digital media at scale. By cryptographically signing content, it embeds trust into the content at the outset and means organisations can give users confidence in what they are seeing to help protect their brand from manipulation and misuse.

Another key challenge for enterprises is the continued shortening of certificate lifecycles. Following industry changes, the maximum validity period for TLS certificates is being reduced to 200 days from March 2026, with further reductions expected to 47 days by 2029. This means organisations will need to renew and manage certificates far more frequently than before. Many still lack visibility into how many certificates they have, where they are deployed and when they expire, creating real operational and security risk. As lifecycles shrink, automation and centralised management become essential to maintain resilience and avoid outages at scale.

Sophie Milburn: DigiCert operates across a wide range of highly regulated industries globally. How can partners help clients navigate complex compliance requirements while also implementing effective security practices?

Christian Stanford: It’s first worth pointing out that DigiCert is trusted by the majority of the Fortune 500. DigiCert customers span multiple verticals. It won’t be a surprise to many, but they include finance, healthcare and retail, as well as the public sector, government, manufacturing and defence, which is obviously very important given what’s happening in the world today.

Manufacturing is particularly interesting for partners right now because DigiCert is quite different to others in that it enables the protection of IoT devices. This means we can support IoT environments across sectors like automotive and industrial. All of this can be managed through the DigiCert ONE platform, which can handle certificates and devices at vast scale. This is built for the enterprise and the mid-market as well. 

Partners can provide services powered by our platform, and many are already doing so. In turn, they are helping their clients stay compliant around PKI and identity, which is very much a priority, while also being in line with industry standards. We align with most major frameworks, but to name a few, NIS2 and, of course, GDPR. The key point is that partners are able to simplify compliance adoption and help maintain those standards on behalf of their end clients.

Sophie Milburn: How is DigiCert working with partners through its channel programme, and what value does the ecosystem provide to MSPs, MSSPs and systems integrators?

Christian Stanford: One thing I haven’t mentioned so far is that we have a full and comprehensive partner programme. The programme is built for technology partners, technology integrators, systems integrators, GSIs and, of course, MSPs, MSSPs and resellers. Our partnership programme covers all the bases.

DigiCert is expanding its channel presence and adopting more of a channel-first approach in some areas. This means we don’t just offer a programme with all the trimmings. We also provide education and enablement tools, essentially everything a partner would need. We maintain strong margins, which is very important for partners. We also provide tiering based on investment, along with badges and certifications. 

I would point out the most important thing for partners to hear is that our sales team is fully aligned with the partner ecosystem, and we work very closely across DigiCert sales, partner sales and end clients. As I mentioned, we have a give-to-get approach, where we have a large base of customers that we can introduce to partners, and in return, partners can introduce us to some of their customers. 

Sophie Milburn: What practical steps can MSPs take to build trust and credibility in digital resilience and identity management?

Christian Stanford: For MSPs, GSIs and resellers, building trust and credibility in digital resilience and identity management starts with delivering consistent, scalable services that customers can rely on. That means moving beyond simply reselling certificates, and instead offering managed services around PKI, DNS and certificate lifecycle management.

We are seeing strong demand from partners for platforms that allow them to do exactly that. DigiCert provides a unified platform that enables partners to manage certificates, automate lifecycles and enforce policy at scale, giving them the foundation to build repeatable, high value services for their customers. Capabilities such as trusted lifecycle management allow partners to improve visibility, reduce risk and help prevent outages.

Alongside that, our partner programme is designed to support partners as they build out these services, providing the enablement, tools and access they need to develop skills, differentiate their offering and deliver trusted outcomes for customers.

Sophie Milburn: How does DigiCert’s partner ecosystem support organisations in delivering secure and scalable solutions? And what advice would you give to those looking to optimise the use of that programme?

Christian Stanford: End clients are managing thousands of certificates in some instances, sometimes less, sometimes more. But this is really the lifecycle of certificate question, and it is shortening. Customers of partners don’t have these comprehensive plans in place. That’s what we’re hearing, that’s what we’re finding and that’s what partners are saying to me. This makes it difficult to manage the volume of certificates that some clients have in place, as well as the shorter lifecycle requirements. Automating these often repetitive and manual processes is crucial.

Sophie Milburn: What are you excited about in the next couple of years, and what emerging technologies, threats and trends do you anticipate having the biggest impact in the years to come? 

Christian Stanford: MSPs need more help than ever because of the shortening lifecycle of certificates of their customers and the mandate that has been put in place. It has crept up on people. The renewal cycle is 200 days as of this month, reducing to 47 days by 2029. So, organisations are looking to reduce cost, risk and achieve compliance by shifting towards automation and AI. 

Secondly, what we are hearing, and this did come out of RSA, is it’s obvious everyone is talking about AI, but the trending topic is the threat of AI. Getting ahead of that and the looming challenge of quantum computing. Google recently projected Q-Day to be sometime in 2029 and we are uniquely positioned to support enterprises as they look to become quantum-ready, and safe. Partners are crucial in this regard because it requires preparation to start now if it hasn’t already, and the shared expertise is what will enable organisations to get ahead.