47-Day Certificates Are Almost Here — Are Your Processes Ready?

6 Feb

Certificate validity periods are shrinking again — and this time, to just 47 days. While this shift is driven by a push for stronger security and reduced exposure, it introduces a new level of operational pressure for organisations that are already managing complex digital estates.

For many teams, shorter certificate lifespans mean significantly more renewals, tighter timelines, and far less margin for error. When certificates expire unexpectedly, the impact is immediate and visible — service outages, application downtime, and disrupted customer experiences. As validity periods continue to decrease, the risk associated with manual processes increases just as quickly.

Our technology partner, AppViewX, has previously detailed this shift and its broader impact, with the first reduction in certificate validity taking effect in two weeks’ time. Read their article in full here

From Barrier Network’s perspective, the move to 47-day publicly trusted TLS certificates is a “right now” operational issue - not a 2029 problem. The first reduction to 200 days hits March 15, 2026, then 100 days in March 2027, steadily shrinking the margin for error. For a network and service provider running thousands of certificates across customer portals, APIs, edge services, and internal platforms, manual renewals will quickly become unsustainable - driving real outage risk, broken releases, and audit findings.

By March 2029, the renewal cadence (every 6–7 weeks) plus domain validation reuse dropping to 10 days means near-constant validation and rotation work. This is the moment to inventory every certificate, standardize issuance, and automate end-to-end renewal (ACME/CLM), so availability and trust don’t become collateral damage.

At Barrier Networks, we’re helping organisations prepare for shorter certificate lifecycles by moving away from reactive, manual management and towards greater visibility and automation. As a trusted partner working closely with AppViewX, we support teams in assessing their current certificate posture, reducing operational risk, and putting processes in place that scale as validity periods continue to shrink.

Changes like this aren’t one-off events — they’re part of a broader shift in how digital trust is managed. The organisations that prepare now will be far better placed to avoid disruption later.

Paige Leach