Case Study
Large Gas & Electric Utility Holding Company
One of the largest electric utility companies in the United States partnered with PKI Solutions to improve PKI visibility, strengthen operational resilience, and reduce the risk of certificate-related outages through PKI Spotlight and proactive monitoring capabilities.
About the company
Industry: Electric Utility
Company Size: Enterprise
Role: PKI Software and solution service provider
Customer Type: B2C, B2B
Headquarters: United States
Challenge
The organization relied heavily on PKI infrastructure to support secure communications, VPN connectivity, substation operations, and critical infrastructure systems across multiple regions.
Following several unrelated PKI and infrastructure failures, the organization experienced operational disruptions that exposed gaps in monitoring visibility and proactive issue detection.
The organization identified several major challenges:
- Limited PKI monitoring visibility: Existing monitoring capabilities were not sufficient to proactively identify issues before outages occurred.
- Operational risk exposure: PKI outages impacted critical infrastructure systems and remote workforce connectivity.
- Reactive operational processes: Teams lacked centralized insight into PKI health and were forced into reactive troubleshooting workflows.
- Infrastructure complexity: Geographically redundant PKI environments required more advanced monitoring and alerting capabilities.
- High availability concerns: Certain infrastructure components were not configured to the same resiliency standards across all operational regions.
It was a bad situation. There was a network outage late on a Friday night and we had no way to monitor the thing. So, on Monday morning, not only were we getting alarms that we had lost connectivity to a lot of substations, but employees couldn’t get connected via our VPN. Since approximately 50% of our workforce is working remote now due to the impact of COVID-19, it was not good.
Having a working VPN is critical to our operations. It wasn’t just the fact that the PKI went down — it also exposed some flaws in our infrastructure outside of our PKI environments as well. Ultimately, we learned a hard lesson that not having a way to monitor the health and security availability of our PKI environment is a key deficiency.
Solution
Following the outage events, the organization partnered with PKI Solutions to implement a proactive PKI monitoring and alerting strategy centered around PKI Spotlight.
PKI Solutions deployed PKI Spotlight in an on-premises environment designed to support the company’s geographically redundant PKI infrastructure and operational requirements.
With PKI Spotlight, the organization gained:
- Centralized visibility into PKI environments
- Real-time monitoring and alerting
- Faster identification of operational issues
- Improved awareness of certificate and infrastructure health
- Proactive notifications to reduce outage risk
- Consolidated dashboards across critical PKI components
Because the organization required an on-premises solution rather than a cloud-based monitoring platform, PKI Solutions tailored the implementation to align with operational and security requirements.
Key Deliverables
- Deployment of PKI Spotlight for ongoing PKI monitoring and alerting
- Consulting services to improve PKI resiliency and operational readiness
- Centralized dashboard visibility across PKI infrastructure components
- Real-time alerting and operational notifications
- Support for geographically redundant PKI environments
Resolution
By implementing PKI Spotlight, the organization significantly improved its ability to proactively monitor and manage PKI operations across the enterprise.
The centralized dashboard reduced the need for administrators to individually log into multiple infrastructure systems to assess operational health. Teams gained faster visibility into operational issues while improving overall efficiency and resiliency.
- Improved visibility into PKI status, configurations, and events
- Faster detection and remediation of operational issues
- Reduced risk of certificate-related outages and disruptions
- Improved operational efficiency for IT and security teams
- Increased resiliency across identity and encryption infrastructure
- Enhanced stakeholder visibility into PKI operational health
The organization now uses PKI Spotlight to proactively identify issues, improve operational readiness, and support the long-term resiliency of its mission-critical PKI infrastructure.
By the numbers:
How we helped Greenhill
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
See the unseen with
PKI Spotlight®
Connect With Us for Certainty in Security
If you’re ready to learn more about our essential solutions for your essential PKI, reach out today. Book time with one of our specialists to discuss your needs and how we can meet and exceed your business requirements.
Contact Us
Email: hello@pkisolutions.com
Phone: +1 (971) 231-5523
Corporate Headquarters
1000 SW Broadway
Suite 1800
Portland, OR 97205