RE: [kmip-comment] KMIP vs EKMI

Hi Dean –

As I think you’ll see in the attached charters for the EKMI and KMIP technical committees (available on our public pages), we in KMIP see our work as complementary to EKMI:

- EKMI has focuses on an XML-based protocol for exchange of symmetric keys and key policy. SKSML V1.0 (http://docs.oasis-open.org/ekmi/sksml/v1.0/SKSML-1.0-Specification.html) does a great job in defining this protocol.

- KMIP focuses on defining a protocol using tag-type-length-value syntax that can be implemented at a lower level, supporting a broad range of cryptographic objects. Other protocols, such as EKMI, can be implemented on top of KMIP if that is useful for the particular environment in which a cryptographic client or key management server is operating. The KMIP V1.0 Specification (http://docs.oasis-open.org/kmip/spec/v1.0/cs01/kmip-spec-1.0-cs-01.pdf) describes the current version of the protocol; we are very close to beginning a public review of KMIP V1.1 and would very much welcome your review of and comments during that public review.

If we or the EKMI folks can be of further help, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Regards,

Bob Griffin

Co-chair KMIP TC

From: Dean Macinskas [mailto:sdrain9@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:33 PM
To: kmip-comment@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [kmip-comment] KMIP vs EKMI

Can someone provide some insight as to the differences between EKMI and KMIP, what their respective target application environments are and why one would choose one over the other? They appear to use completely different communications protocols. Are they seen as competing or complementary? Is there a document or FAQ that discusses this?

Thanks,

Dean

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