Venafi's AutoCert Manager 4.1 gets excellent marks for features that substantially shorten the time needed and the work required to manage Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) digital certificates. AutoCert Manager 4.1 performs as a certificate clearinghouse to track certificate information and status across the enterprise. AutoCert Manager 4.1 also supports automated renewal even in more elaborate environments that use multiple signing authorities. AutoCert Manager 4.1 earns the eWeek Labs Analyst's Choice designation because it works well to solve a management problem that, if left unresolved, could adversely impact the public's trust in a company's brand. AutoCert Manager 4.1 automates some or all steps in the process of requesting and generating certificates, including administration tasks for generation of public/private key pair, generation of CSR from the Web server, and transmission of the CSR to the certificate authority. Certificate authority tasks automated are request and authorization validation, generation and signing of the certificate, and administrator notification. More administrator tasks are automated for certificate receipt from the certificate authority, certificate installation, testing and verification of certificate operation, tracking of certificate expiration date, and renewal as needed. Testers advise that larger deployments should use an external SQL Server database for greater scalability than possible with the integrated MSDE 2000.