Key Management In The Multi-Platform Environment

Encryption key management solutions have the primary goal of managing and protecting encryption keys, and making them available to authorized applications in a secure fashion. Key retrieval includes the process by which an application requests an encryption key from the key server, how the key is protected during the delivery of the key, and the format of the encryption key and policy information that is delivered. While work is under way to define a common standard for key retrieval, there is currently no published or de facto standard for key retrieval. Each vendor of key management solutions defines the key retrieval mechanism used in their solution.

Key management solutions vary greatly in the complexity of the key retrieval process. The more complex the key retrieval interface, the greater the challenge for the Enterprise IT team in deploying key retrieval in applications. Understanding this fact can help IT decision makers assess different vendor solutions and the likely costs of deploying a solution in their Enterprise.