A certification authority for the Kenyan research community
Ronald Osure, Peter Muia, Meoli Kashorda · 2017
There are different research communities in Kenyan universities and research institutes that required advanced research infrastructures and access to highperformance computing and grid-computing. Examples are research communities in computational modelling and materials science, bioinformatics, computational biology and chemistry, and engineering and computer science. Research infrastructures allow researchers to access resources available in the global research and education networks. In order to access such resources, KENET has setup the identity provider and certification authority infrastructures. The Certification Authority (CA) developed by KENET in collaboration with European partners is accredited by the European Grid Policy Management Authority (EUGridPMA) [1]. The KENET CA is a low-cost CA built to serve the research community of Kenya as is the practice in various research communities across the world. The certificates that are issued cannot be used for commercial purposes as seen with the other providers like Verisign, COMODO or even the community inspired Let's Encrypt. The KENET CA issues digital certificates to researchers who need access to High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructures available outside Kenya mainly in Europe and the rest of the world [2]. The key advantage is that Kenyan researchers are no longer limited by the computing resources available at their campuses or in Kenya. This paper will describe the innovative methodology, architecture and tools used by KENET to develop the KENET CA, the two-year accreditation process by EUGridPMA, and the usage by the research communities in Kenya.