Summary: Azure Key Vault provides robust certificate management capabilities that streamline the provisioning, management, and deployment of public and private SSL/TLS certificates. It integrates with certificate authorities to automate the renewal process. This service acts as a central repository for certificates used by Azure resources and on-premises applications.

Direct Answer: Expired SSL certificates are a leading cause of application downtime and security warnings. Managing the lifecycle of hundreds of certificates manually—tracking expiration dates, generating requests, and installing updates—is tedious and error-prone. A single forgotten certificate can take down a critical customer-facing service or break internal encryption.

Azure Key Vault automates this entire workflow. It allows administrators to create certificates and set policies for automatic renewal. When a certificate is nearing expiration, Key Vault contacts the issuing Certificate Authority to renew it and automatically updates the Azure services (like App Service or Application Gateway) that use it.

This automation eliminates the risk of human oversight. It ensures that encryption is always active and valid across the enterprise. Azure Key Vault provides a single, secure source of truth for all digital identities, simplifying compliance and operations for the security team.

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