Analysis of first four case studies

[Steve Hanna <shanna@funk.com>]

On our last concall, I signed up to analyze the
first four case studies in June's summary.
The aim is to filter the case studies down to
a few, selecting the best and those that address
the issues cited by survey respondents: benefits
of PKI, value, ROI, and risk management.

Here's my analysis.

1  http://cio.co.nz/cio.nsf/0/F7353E7F83C87867CC256DC600184131?OpenDocument
    HP Case Study: Battle-tested tech: security and data mining

This document largely overlaps document 4 but does
not do as good a job in covering the areas we want
to cover: PKI benefits, value, ROI, and risk management.
I recommend we omit it from our list.

2  http://www.articsoft.com/case_studies_medical1.htm
    Articsoft Case Study - Medical Records Transcription

This document also does not provide much detail about
the areas we want to cover. It describes a document
signing installation. If we don't have a good case
study for document signing, then we should include
this. But we should not feature it.

3  http://www.pwc.com/Extweb/NewCoAtWork.nsf/docid/D5C23450A741F81E85256DB400000520
    PWC: Identity Management Case Study: What We Did For a Major US Financial Client

This case study has very little to do with PKI,
maybe nothing. I suggest we omit it.

4  http://www.globalplatform.org/fcs/DOD_Case_Study.pdf
    Common Access Cards - Expanding the Functionality of
    ID Cards for the US Department of Defense

Finally, a good solid case study that covers the
benefits, challenges, and risk management aspects
of a real-world PKI deployment. It describes the
Common Access Card deployment at the U.S. Department
of Defense, a huge deployment of PKI-enabled smart
cards. Many organizations are interested in using
PKI-enabled smart cards for employee identification
so this is a great use case to include.

The only complaints I have are that it's a bit dated
(only one year old, though) and a bit long (four pages).
But I'd say this is definitely a keeper!

I apologize that it has taken me almost two weeks
to provide this analysis. Just in the nick of time!

Thanks,

Steve