The Decision to Buy vs. Build Nicholas Davis (UW-Madison) Tom McDonnell (Geotrust)

Overview History of PKI at UW-Madison UW-Madison IT environment Our PKI requirements Comparison of benefits we found in buy vs. build Our experience so far Integration with existing systems Critical success factors Summary of benefits Future considerations What we have learned Questions and comments

History of PKI at UW-Madison October 2000 Internet2 Public Key Infrastructure Lab established at UW- Madison Secure pilot study

History of PKI at UW-Madison 2002 Provided certificates to Shibboleth testing community and participated in Federal Bridge Pilot project

History of PKI at UW-Madison 2004 Campus requirements gathering initiative Spring 2005 RFI review August 2005 Geotrust selected

How UW-Madison Differs From Peers Faculty, Staff, Students Highly decentralized Public institution Research driven environment

Why the UW-Madison is interested in PKI Threat of identity theft (strong 2-factor authentication) More university businesses conducted via web / extranets through open community, across organizations Privacy of information (encryption) Authenticated communication (signing)

UW-MadisonCritical Solution Requirements Ease of management Ready integration into existing systems Ease of adoption by end users Scalability, flexibility, cost of ownership, accreditations…

Core Requirements Automated certificate delivery Used for encryption, digital signing and potentially authentication Off site key escrow Transparency to end user Global trust Implementation within 6 months Minimum “lock in” commitment

Up Front Development Costs Gartner Group estimates that the average commercial PKI system costs $1 million to implement 80% of PKI systems never get beyond “pilot” status Our estimated first year costs are substantially less than this

Project Features Time Cost Features Quality

PKI Systems Under Consideration RFI solicited input from:

PKI Models Under Consideration In House (Commercial and Open Source) Co-managed

Time to Implement In House (Open Source) To develop our desired feature set would require 2 full time programmers for 12 months Cost of establishing sandbox, QA and production environments Hardware acquisition: secure cage, network equipment, Certificate Authority, Registration Authority CP and CPS statements would need to be written and reviewed by DoIT management and UW Legal Estimated time to implement: 12 months

Time to Implement In House (Commercial) 1 FTE would be needed to act as Administrator Need to establish sandbox, and QA environments. Design logical and physical security infrastructure for secure CA and offsite key escrow Purchase hardware, install software Develop policy, CP and CPS Estimated time to implement: 9 months

Time to Implement Co-Managed 1 FTE would be needed to act as Administrator Upon completion of purchase contract, system would be immediately ready No need to establish sandbox, and QA environments. Estimated time to implement: 4 weeks

Projected costs for an aggressive PKI rollout schedule Build (Open Source) Year 1 system costs 5000 users ~$50,000 2 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$200,000 Total Year 1 costs: ~$250,000 Year 2 and beyond (annual costs) 5000 users ~$0 2 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$200,000 Total annual costs ~$200, year cost ~$2,050,000

Projected costs for an aggressive PKI rollout schedule Build (Commercial) Year 1 system costs 5000 users ~$200,000 1 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$100,000 Total Year 1 costs: ~$300,000 Year 2 and beyond ($40,000 maint.) 5000 users ~$0 1 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$100,000 Upgrades and maintenance ~$5000 Total annual costs ~$145, year cost ~$1,605,000

Projected costs for an aggressive PKI rollout schedule Buy (Co-Managed) Year 1 System costs 5000 users ~$43,000 1 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$100,000 Total yearly costs = ~$143,000 Year 2 and beyond (annual contract) 5000 users ~$43,000 1 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$100,000 Total annual cost $143, year cost ~$1,430,000

Annual Cost Summary

Feature Set – No Trusted Root With Open Source Unsigned Root means distrust both within and outside our core universe

Feature Set – Trusted Root -- Geotrust Seamless trust let’s us play globally via the Equifax Secure eBusiness CA1

Feature Set – Key Escrow -- Build Logistical, financial and political issues with building true off site key escrow

Feature Set – Key Escrow – Co-Managed Keys are securely kept in Atlanta, GA

Feature Set – Distance Users -- Build Logistical issues with getting certificates to users who are geographically distant.

Feature Set – Distance Users – Co-Managed All the user needs is a web browser in order to get their certificate

Service -- Build Supporting a PKI in house would require dedicated staff to work on monitoring system health constantly

Service – Co-Managed True Credentials is constantly monitored, patched, upgraded and backed up by Geotrust at their operations center in Atlanta, GA

Our Experience So Far Customers appreciate: Automated certificate delivery Trusted Root Key Escrow Uses: Using certificates for digital signing Using certificates for encrypted Digital signing of mass to campus

Integration With Existing Systems Easily scalable – Load users in CSV format in batch Public keys are exportable to LDAP and University White Pages CRL is automated via True Credentials system Third party software available for high assurance server authentication

Critical Success factors for the UW-Madison A focus on the customer requirements is of pinnacle importance Financial lifecycle modeling for both short and long term Being careful not to reinvent the wheel simply for the sake of pride Top down support from the CIO’s office

Summary Benefits of Buying Lower upfront fixed costs Lower 10 year costs Faster road to implementation Trusted Root Off Site Key Escrow Automated certificate delivery UW-Madison common look and feel No long term lock in

Future Considerations The beneficial cost argument may change if our user population grows dramatically Widespread adoption of the Federal Bridge may alter our reliance on a commercial pre-installed root

What We Have Learned A certificate is a certificate What matters most is what your organization does with the certificate once it is issued The challenge of implementing PKI is 30% technical and 70% user education, marketing and acceptance

What We Have Learned The key to success in a decentralized environment lies in motivating your users, not obligating your users Whether you choose to build or buy, remember to keep it simple for the customers Don’t spend time on duplication of effort

Questions and Comments Nicholas Davis PKI Project Manager UW-Madison Thomas McDonnell, CISSP Director of Sales Engineering Geotrust