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Metrics to prove progress

Trust Architecture Playbook: Issuance pillar

The following metrics track progress toward a well-governed, operationally mature issuance capability for the DigiCert® ONE platform.

CA design and planning

  • Cryptographic baseline documented: approved algorithms, key sizes, hash functions, and validity limits defined for roots, intermediates, and end-entity certificates, with a transition roadmap for algorithm deprecation.

  • Number of issuing CAs commissioned or connected to Trust Lifecycle Manager with documented purpose and owner (trend: increasing toward target state).

  • Revocation strategy defined: CRL and OCSP endpoints are identified for each connected CA, relying party reachability is confirmed, and revocation checking behavior is defined for each environment.

DigiCert Private CA

  • CA hierarchy documented and approved: target CA hierarchy diagram exists with roots, intermediates, use-case mapping, validity periods, key protection requirements, and revocation endpoints defined.

  • Core policy documents identified and approved for each production CA before it goes into production.

  • Active issuing CAs mapped to documented purposes, with distinct CAs where validity requirements, revocation requirements, algorithm choices, or compromise impact tolerances differ (target: 100% of issuing CAs have a documented purpose and owner).

  • Percent of CA keys stored in HSMs (target: 100% for root and issuing CAs).

  • CRL and OCSP infrastructure availability for all active issuing CAs (target: 100%).

  • Customer-hosted deployments: failover procedures documented and tested for all production issuing CAs.

DigiCert CertCentral

  • CertCentral connector active in Trust Lifecycle Manager with verified credentials and a named owner.

  • For organizations with multiple public trust issuance teams: one dedicated CertCentral connector per issuance team.

  • Non-default ICA chain selections documented: for each CertCentral product type using a non-default chain, a record exists of the chain configured, the rationale, and who approved it.

Third-party CA connectivity

  • Number of third-party CA connectors active in Trust Lifecycle Manager, each with a named owner and verified credentials (target: one connector per active CA account; no ownerless or stale connectors).

  • Root and intermediate certificates for third-party private CAs uploaded to Trust Lifecycle Manager; ensures accurate chain analysis and crypto hygiene checks (target: 100%).

PQC readiness

  • Percent of active certificates using classical algorithms inventoried in Trust Lifecycle Manager with crypto hygiene data (baseline: 100% before PQC work begins).

  • Number of high-risk certificates identified for PQC migration prioritization (long-lived certificates, CA keys, certificates protecting sensitive workloads).

  • PQC pilot milestone: at least one PQC certificate type issued and tested in a non-production environment.