Glossary

This table describes common terms used in this guide.

Terms Definition
ACME Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME) protocol is a communications protocol for automating the certificate enrollment to the CA and provision the certificate on the requesting entity.
Certificate Authority (CA) A certificate authority or certification authority is an entity that issues digital certificates. It certifies the ownership of the key pair belongs to the subject within the certificate.
X.509 Digital Certificate X.509 is a standard defining the format of public key certificates. An X. 509 certificate is using the widely accepted public key infrastructure (PKI) standard to verify that a public key belongs to the user, computer or service identity contained within the certificate.
Identity The digital certificate can also be called a Digital ID or Identity for the subject to whom it is certified.
PKI A public key infrastructure (PKI) is a technology containing a set of roles, policies, and procedures needed to create, distribute, store and revoke digital certificates and manage public-key encryption.
KMIP The Key Management Interoperability Protocol is a communication standard protocol that defines message formats for the management of cryptographic keys on a key management server.
MDM Mobile Device Management (MDM) is the administration of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, and laptops.
EST The Enrollment over Secure Transport or EST is a cryptographic protocol that describes an X. 509 certificate management protocol targeting public key infrastructure (PKI) clients that need to acquire client certificates and associated certificate authority (CA) certificates. EST is described in RFC 7030
SCEP Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) is an IETF RFC. This enables network user to request their digital certificate electronically and as simply as possible. Supported by most of the network devices.
SSL/TLS Certificates SSL refers to Secure Sockets Layer whereas TLS refers to Transport Layer Security. Both are cryptographic protocols providing secure data communication in a network.