Certificate Authority Types

[1] The two different types of Digi-CA™ systems are:

Digi-CA™ Service
The Digi-CA™ Service is supplied as an online service from outside your organization.
Digi-CA™ Server
Digi-CA™ Server is installed at your premises or your data centre.

Digi-CA™ Service

The Digi-CA™ Service is the Managed CA and as explained in 2.6.2, it is the service that is provided online using the Application Service Provider [ASP] delivery model. There is no hardware or software requirement at the customer site.

The Digi-CA™ Service is charged on an annual recurring fee based on the number of Digital Certificates issued each year and this covers all maintenance, administration and the support that is required to keep the Digi-CA™ [2] operational.

You can choose to start with Digi-CA™ Service, migrate to Digi-CA™ Server and then further migrate back to Digi-CA™ Service with ease. This is because the Digi-CA™ Service and Digi-CA™ Server systems share a common architecture and the same Digi-CA™ Certificate Engine.

No other vendor offers this high degree of flexibility, migration and integration capabilities.
There are seven variations of Digi-CA™ Service namely:

- Service - is for SSLs in bulk (5 or more) [3]
- Digi-ISP Service™ - SSLs for ISPs and ICTs
- Digi-IPSec Service™ - is for IPSec Certificates
- Digi-Access™ [4] Service - provides two factor authentication [5]
- Digi-Mail™ [6] Service - provides secure email
- Digi-ID™ [7] Service - is for multi-use Digi-IDs™
- Digi-CA™ Service - hosted and managed Digi-CA™

There are three principal variations of the Digi-CA™ Service:

2. Digi-CA™ Xp

3. Digi-CA™ Xg

The main difference between Xs, Xp and Xg relates to the degree of integration and customization required. For example, Digi-CA™ Service Xs can be pre-configured and available to the customer to begin using in a matter of days whilst a Digi-CA™ Service Xg could take weeks of integration work and testing before it is ready to be accessed.

For those customers that must have total ownership of their CA environment or wish to have the environment certified, then Digi-CA™ Server is probably the best choice.

Digi-CA™ Server

Digi-CA™ Server is the CA Software that is installed on a server in a data centre or at the customer site. As explained in 2.6.3, Digi-CA™ charges a once off license fee in advance that is based on the cost of the software, its configuration and installation and then the number of Certificates required over the life of the product's use. The only other fee you pay is the annual license fee (normally 17.5% of the initial license fee) to cover upgrades, patches and application telephone support.

The main reason why you would choose to purchase Digi-CA™ Server software is so that you can create and control the total CA environment. As explained in 2.6.3, with Digi-CA™, you must have reliable internet connections, hardware, hardware support, compliance [8] documents, Administrators and your own CA Technical Support help desk.

Digi-CA™ Server Xs, Xp & Xg

Digi-CA™ Server can be delivered in three different Classes:

2 Digi-CA™ Multi-Server - Digi-CA™ Xp - Professional CA

3 Digi-CA™ Trust Centre - Digi-CA™ Xg - Trust Centre CA

Important Note

It is important to note that Digi-CA™ Server uses the same interfaces, Digi-CA™ Control Centre and user help files in all of its versions. The importance of this is apparent if a customer chooses to migrate from one Class to another. When migrating, there are no concerns about the cost of re-training of Administrators or users and/or any other re-deployment issues.

Similarly, the alternative Digi-CA™ Service also uses all of the same interfaces and help files as Digi-CA™ Server. No other CA system in the market offers the same flexibility as Digi-CA™ with the inter-changeability of Digi-CA™ Server and Digi-CA™ Service.