CertAlert.me asks for an email address and domains to get users set up for regular alerts for both.
When Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform went down in late February because of an expired SSL certificate, Kansas City, Mo. startup Stackify jumped at the opportunity to create a free solution for everyone, including itself.
Stackify, which uses Azure, learned of the platform’s crash on a Friday and later that day set out to build a tool that would send monthly alerts to notify a user when their domain name or SSL certificate is set to expire. By the end of the weekend, the team had launched CertAlert.Me.
Thanks to our sponsor
“We thought we’d make a simple tool, make it free and get it out there,” Stackify founder Matt Watson (right) said Monday. “It’s a freemium product that’s also a lead generator for us.”
Instead of requiring a download or payment like other options, CertAlert.me only asks users for an email address and any domains they want to be notified about, which triggers an automated email that goes out once a month.
Watson said about 300 users signed up for the service in the first week and more are signing up every day. CertAlert.Me will help IT administrators stay on top of what is a common problem, he said.
“Most companies have SSL certificates and domain names, but typically nobody is directly responsible for them,” Watson said in a press release. “They fall in a gray area.”
Credits: Screenshot taken from certalert.me. Matt Watson photo from stackify.com.