A public key infrastructure (PKI) implements a methodology, based on the concepts and technology of public-key cryptography, for supporting data security services throughout an enterprise network. As this definition implies, a PKI supports these data security services as part of a common security infrastructure that is implemented throughout the enterprise.

OpenEdge supports elements of a PKI with its implementation of a Transport Layer Security (TLS). The following topics describe the basic PKI concepts and terminology used both to define TLS and to describe the OpenEdge implementation of TLS throughout the OpenEdge documentation set.

CAUTION: Use of a PKI in any network environment can have significant performance impacts. Be certain that you need the security that a PKI supports before you choose to design and build PKI support into any of your application networking.