The cybersecurity landscape is poised for a seismic shift. With the CA/Browser Forum's dramatic changes to certificate renewal timelines from 398 days to just 47 days by March 2029, organizations worldwide face an unprecedented challenge. The race against time has begun and the stakes couldn't be higher. The timeline that keeps IT teams up at night shows a progressive reduction: March 2026 brings certificate validity down to 200 days, followed by a further cut to 100 days in March 2027 and finally, a dramatic drop to just 47 days by March 2029. For many organizations, keeping track of certificate renewals is already a significant challenge. Now, imagine managing this process with less than two months to act.

The 47-day nightmare scenario

Picture this: Your organization's critical certificate is up for renewal in just 47 days. The clock is ticking relentlessly. Your IT team scrambles to track expiration dates across multiple systems, coordinate with certificate authorities, navigate complex renewal processes and maintain uninterrupted business operations, all simultaneously. As the deadline approaches, the pressure mounts exponentially. The risks include service outages, compliance penalties and irreparable reputational damage. Does this sound familiar? If not yet, it soon will be.

Understanding the decision makers: Who is the CA/Browser Forum?

The CA/Browser Forum isn't just another industry group; it's the consortium shaping the future of internet security. This powerful alliance brings together leading certificate authorities such as DigiCert, Sectigo, GlobalSign, Entrust and Let's Encrypt, alongside major browser vendors including Google (Chrome), Mozilla (Firefox), Apple (Safari) and Microsoft (Edge). Their decisions directly impact on how every organization manages digital certificates, making their recent timeline changes impossible to ignore. This proactive approach ensures continuous compliance with industry regulations and helps maintain customer trust by preventing security lapses.

The fix isn’t more effort—it’s Crypto Agility

Certificate renewal has outgrown routine maintenance—it’s now a strategic mandate. Manual tracking, siloed workflows and last-minute scrambles create security vulnerabilities, operational inefficiencies, compliance risks and costly downtime. There’s a better way: transform renewals into a seamless, automated lifecycle with centralized visibility, policy-driven policies and zero-touch provisioning so that certificates are discovered, renewed and deployed on time, every time.

How can HCLTech help you?

HCLTech’s Crypto Agility solution, powered by Managed PKI Services, removes the operational burden created by shorter renewal windows and manual certificate handling. It brings together four core capabilities:

1. Crypto assessment: Continuous discovery of certificates, identification of weak cryptography and detection of PQC readiness gaps, delivering a clear, prioritized remediation roadmap.
2. PKI management: Reliable operation of root and issuing CAs with centralized governance, policy enforcement and audit-ready compliance reporting.
3. Automated certificate lifecycle management (CLM): End-to-end automation for discovery, issuance, renewal, rotation and revocation at scale helping prevent outages even with a 47-day renewal window.
4. Secure code signing: Protects software integrity across DevOps pipelines by securing and managing signing keys and certificates.

Together, these capabilities form a unified crypto-agility portfolio—enabling faster renewals, greater resilience and future-ready, quantum-safe cryptographic operations.

Key features of HCLTech’s crypto agility solution

1. Proactive renewal reminders: Automated alerts surface upcoming expirations well in advance of the 47-day threshold.
2. Centralized visibility: A unified, real-time inventory of every certificate eliminates blind spots and prevents missed renewals.
3. Automated workflows: End-to-end automation for requests, approvals, issuance, renewal, provisioning and revocation reduces manual effort and errors.
4. Compliance confidence: Built‑in policy enforcement and audit‑ready reporting maintain alignment with industry regulations and internal standards, minimizing penalty risk.
5. Scalable security: Manage hundreds or thousands of certificates across hybrid and multi‑cloud environments with consistent governance.
6. PQC readiness assessment: End-to-end mapping of systems using long-lived encryption to evaluate quantum vulnerability and migration priorities.
7. Cryptographic asset discovery: Automated scanning identifies outdated, weak, or non‑compliant algorithms across applications and services.
8. Crypto agility framework: Flexible architecture enabling rapid algorithm or key‑length changes without disrupting applications.

By transitioning from reactive, manual renewal cycles to an automated certificate lifecycle management approach, your organization will safeguard business continuity, strengthen security posture and free up valuable IT resources for innovation.

To meet the CA/Browser Forum’s accelerated timelines, we’ve created a phased renewal plan that extends proactive management well before certificate expiry.

This structured timeline keeps your organization compliant, prevents disruption and eliminates last-minute scrambles.

Conclusion

The shift to a 47-day certificate renewal window is already underway and manual, fragmented processes won’t scale, raising the risk of missed renewals, outages and compliance gaps. The answer is crypto agility: continuous discovery, centralized governance and automated certificate lifecycle management so renewals happen on time, every time. HCLTech’s crypto agility solution, powered by managed PKI services, helps you stay ahead of the CA/Browser Forum timeline, protect business continuity and prepare for what’s next, including post-quantum changes.