GlobalSign Releases Survey on SSL Industry

GlobalSign Inc., a specialist in SSL partner programs and security automation technologies, today announced results of a survey revealing the challenges SSL resellers face, including an extremely competitive industry, an antiquated workflow, and increasingly complex hosting technical environments requiring flexible SSL technology. The survey included responses from 240 SSL resellers from the United States and Europe.

The hosting industry is a very competitive market landscape with thousands of companies reselling SSL. Gaining a competitive edge is extremely difficult, as indicated by the eighty percent of respondents who identified industry competition as the number one challenge to reselling SSL Certificates. Adding to the challenge is the confusion that seems to surround SSL. With seventy-five percent of respondents reporting difficulty marketing SSL and sixty-nine percent of respondents reporting a challenge explaining the value proposition, it is clear that customers are still unsure of SSL. SSL providers, hosting companies, and the press need to continue explaining the significance and benefits of SSL via all channels.

Adding to the confusion surrounding SSL is the slow and error prone lifecycle, which hasn’t changed much since it was created in 1996. Automation is consistently brought up within reselling circles as a solution to this problem. When respondents were asked why they would consider implementing an automated solution, almost equal importance was placed on reducing time spent managing SSL and improving delivery speed to customers. It is clear that both resellers and customers are feeling the consequences of the outdated SSL workflow.

“SSL should be a value-add for hosting companies. Instead organizations end up spending valuable time and resources managing problems that arise with the current, antiquated SSL workflow,” said Steve Waite, Chief Marketing Officer, GlobalSign. “It is time for SSL to join the 21st century and automation is the way to do it, which is why we’ve recently launched a revolutionary technology, OneClickSSL, which completely automates the SSL lifecycle, eliminating the support overhead for the reseller thus allowing organizations to focus on their core business and increase their SSL margins.”

A copy of the Hosting and SSL Reseller report will be released at HostingCon this week, visit booth #627 to pick up a copy or contact GlobalSign to view a copy of the report at press@globalsign.com.