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Best practices when enabling smart card authentication
By Marissa Waddell - While many organisations have employed smart card identification to enhance their physical security infrastructure, datacentres in particular can benefit greatly from the two-factor authentication that a smart card inherently provides to the logical realm (access to software and application systems on servers).
However, whereas a physical security system that incorporates smart cards is straightforward to implement, logical security using PKI-based authentication (Public Key Infrastructure) incurs very specific practical obstacles during implementation in a datacentre. Besides, while smart card readers themselves are inexpensive, 1-to-1 mapping of card readers to server hardware abrogates much of the efficiencies that a high-density server environment with few user touch-points provides.
Datacentre managers thus face a difficult decision: greater security or greater convenience. When seeking a smart card-enabled KVM system, choose not only a solution that fulfills the basic requirement of supporting PKI authentication to multiple servers from a single location, but also one that makes the necessary KVM feature adjustments to enable seamless use of the reader. Finally, it should adhere to industry standards to ensure that security thresholds are met.
An ideal solution such as the Paragon II by Raritan supports the use of smart cards and integrates a card reader that operates exactly as if directly connected to the target servers. It should deliver the same inherent security features. When these attributes are met, security officers will be pleased by the broader deployment of highly-secure smart card capabilities in the datacentre, while server administrators can adhere to security policies without losing the convenience and efficiency that a centralised KVM solution provides.
For more information
www.raritan.co.uk/topsecurity 
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