GlobalSign® Press Release

GlobalSign Survey Reveals Challenges Facing the SSL Reseller Industry and the Need for Workflow Automation

Intra-industry competition and antiquated SSL workflow labeled the biggest barriers

Leuven, BE - August 8 2011 - GlobalSign (www.globalsign.eu), 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 It is clear that both resellers and customers are feeling the consequences of the outdated SSL workflow.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 organisations 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 organisations 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.

For more information about GlobalSign's OneClickSSL solution, please visit www.globalsign.com/ssl/oneclickssl or stop by booth 627 at HostingCon.

About GlobalSign
Established in 1996 and as a WebTrust accredited public certificate authority, GlobalSign offers publicly trusted SSL Certificates, EV SSL, Managed SSL Services, S/MIME email security and Code Signing for use on all platforms including mobile devices. Its Trusted Root solution uses the widely embedded GlobalSign Root CA certificates to provide immediate PKI trust for Microsoft Certificate Services and internal PKI, eliminating the costs of using untrusted Root Certificates. Its partnership with Adobe to provide Certified Document Services (CDS) enables secure digitally signed PDF documents, certified transcripts and e-invoices.  These core Digital Certificate solutions allow its thousands of authenticated customers to conduct secure online transactions, data transfer, distribution of tamper-proof code, and protection of online identities for secure email and access control.  The company has a history of innovation within the online security industry and has offices in the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, and China.

GMO Internet Group
GMO Internet Group is a leading force in the Internet industry offering one of the most comprehensive ranges of Internet services worldwide. The group is the top provider of domain registration, web hosting, ecommerce, and payment processing solutions in Japan and operates a host of other Internet services including global online security services, search engine marketing and online securities trading. At the center of the group is GMO Internet, Inc. (TSE: 9449) headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Please visit www.gmo.jp/en for further details.

For further details please contact:

Steve Waite
GlobalSign
+32 16 891900 / +44 1622 766766
press@globalsign.com