The End of Manual Certificates and the Future of Security Operations with IBM HashiCorp Vault

As the adoption of hybrid cloud, container platforms, and modern application architectures continues to accelerate, the complexity of managing IT security has increased significantly. One of the most critical challenges still faced by many organizations is the management of digital certificates and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which is often handled manually, lacks standardization, and is highly prone to operational errors. These conditions can lead to service downtime, security vulnerabilities, and increased risk of data breaches.

Addressing these challenges, an exclusive forum titled “The End of Manual Certificates and the Future of Security Operations” was held on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, at The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place. The event was organized by PT Mitra Integrasi Informatika (MII) as a partner of PT Sinergi Wahana Gemilang (SWG), with support from IBM HashiCorp. The forum brought together IT professionals, security leaders, and decision-makers from various industries to discuss the future of security operations and the importance of automation in certificate and digital identity management.

The event opened with a welcome address by Andrew Wilson, Product Marketing Manager at PT Mitra Integrasi Informatika (MII). In his presentation, he highlighted how digital transformation has reshaped the way organizations build and manage IT infrastructure. However, many security processes—particularly certificate management—still rely on manual approaches that are no longer aligned with business demands for speed, reliability, and scalability.

According to him, expired certificates, static credentials, and manual renewal processes represent real and recurring risks, especially in hybrid cloud and container-based application environments.

Modernizing PKI with IBM HashiCorp Vault

The main session continued with a presentation titled “Modernizing PKI to Eliminate Risk and Manual Overhead in a Hybrid Cloud Environment”, delivered by Hendra Tanto, Solutions Engineer at IBM HashiCorp. During this session, participants gained insight into how modern PKI approaches can help organizations reduce security risks while simultaneously lowering operational overhead.

IBM HashiCorp Vault was introduced as a centralized platform for securely managing secrets, credentials, and digital certificates in an automated manner. Vault enables organizations to perform certificate issuance, rotation, and revocation in an integrated way, eliminating reliance on manual processes that are highly susceptible to human error.

In addition, Vault adopts an identity-based security approach, where access is dynamically granted based on identity and policy, rather than relying on static credentials or hard-coded configurations.

A live demonstration provided a practical view of how IBM HashiCorp Vault operates, particularly in automating certificate lifecycles and secrets management within hybrid cloud environments. Participants observed how Vault helps prevent certificate expiration, improve visibility, and strengthen access controls across different environments.

The interactive discussion also addressed common challenges faced by organizations, including integration complexity, team readiness, and the need for process transformation when adopting security automation platforms.

The event concluded with a strong message that the future of security operations requires a more proactive, automated, and tightly integrated approach aligned with modern technology ecosystems. PKI automation and centralized secrets management are no longer merely best practices, but strategic necessities to ensure service continuity and maintain customer trust.

Through this forum, participants were expected to gain practical insights and strategic perspectives to move away from risky manual processes and begin building a more resilient, efficient, and future-ready security operations foundation in the digital era.