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AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)

AWS Certificate Manager

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) centralizes the management of your SSL/TLS certificates that provide data encryption in transit. ACM makes it easy to provision, manage, and deploy public and private SSL/TLS certificates for use with AWS services and your internal connected resources.

Core Functionality​

Certificate Provisioning: Request and provision SSL/TLS certificates directly from ACM or import existing certificates from third-party certificate authorities.

Automatic Renewal: ACM automatically renews certificates before they expire, eliminating the manual work and potential downtime associated with certificate management.

Easy Deployment: Deploy certificates to integrated AWS services with a few clicks, simplifying the process of enabling HTTPS for your applications.

Cost-Effective: Public SSL/TLS certificates provisioned through ACM are provided at no additional charge when used with integrated AWS services.

Certificate Types​

Public Certificates: Certificates for public-facing websites and applications that are trusted by web browsers and other clients on the internet.

Private Certificates: Certificates for internal applications and services that require encryption within your organization's private networks.

Imported Certificates: Third-party certificates that you import into ACM for centralized management and deployment to AWS services.

Wildcard Certificates: Certificates that protect a domain and all its subdomains with a single certificate (e.g., *.example.com).

Use Cases​

Web Application Security​

Secure customer-facing websites and web applications with SSL/TLS certificates to protect data transmission and build user trust.

API Protection​

Encrypt API communications between clients and servers, ensuring sensitive data remains protected during transmission.

Load Balancer SSL Termination​

Offload SSL/TLS encryption to Application Load Balancers or Network Load Balancers for improved application performance.

Content Delivery Security​

Secure content delivery through Amazon CloudFront distributions with custom SSL/TLS certificates for your domains.

Connection to Other AWS Services​

Elastic Load Balancing: Deploy certificates to Application Load Balancers and Network Load Balancers for SSL termination and encrypted client connections.

Amazon CloudFront: Use custom SSL/TLS certificates with CloudFront distributions to serve content over HTTPS with your own domain names.

Amazon API Gateway: Secure API endpoints with custom domain names and SSL/TLS certificates for encrypted API communications.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk: Automatically configure SSL/TLS certificates for Elastic Beanstalk environments to secure web applications.

Amazon CloudFormation: Automate certificate provisioning and deployment as part of infrastructure-as-code deployments.

AWS Route 53: Integrate with Route 53 for domain validation during certificate provisioning and renewal processes.

AWS Certificate Manager Private CA: Work with Private CA to issue and manage private certificates for internal applications and services.

Key Features​

Domain Validation: Automatically validate domain ownership through DNS or email validation methods during certificate provisioning.

Certificate Transparency: All public certificates are logged in Certificate Transparency logs for enhanced security and accountability.

Export Capabilities: Export private certificates for use with services outside of AWS while maintaining centralized management.

Detailed Monitoring: Monitor certificate status, expiration dates, and renewal activities through the AWS console and APIs.

Tag-Based Management: Organize and manage certificates using tags for better governance and cost allocation.

Benefits​

Simplified Management: Eliminate the complexity of certificate lifecycle management with automated provisioning and renewal.

Enhanced Security: Ensure certificates are always current and properly configured, reducing security risks from expired certificates.

Cost Savings: Free public SSL/TLS certificates for AWS services eliminate the ongoing cost of third-party certificate authorities.

Improved Availability: Automatic renewal prevents service disruptions caused by expired certificates.

Integration Ease: Seamless integration with AWS services simplifies the deployment and management of encrypted communications.

Compliance Support: Help meet regulatory requirements for data encryption in transit across your applications and services.

AWS Certificate Manager provides a comprehensive solution for SSL/TLS certificate management, enabling organizations to secure their applications and APIs while reducing operational overhead and eliminating certificate-related outages.