Only DuoKey
- Evaluation or trial licence
- Decrypt authorized by Entra ID groups
- Admin SSO and MFA
- Fine-grained administrator RBAC
- Quorum (four-eyes) approval
- Contextual access on key use
- Audit logs exported to a SIEM
- Built-in monitoring dashboard
- Access rules changed live
- Block rules that override allows
- Several identity providers
- Tamper-evident audit log
- Optional mTLS on decrypt calls
- Built-in end-to-end key test
- High-availability cluster
- Multi-site or geo-redundant deployment
- Key backup and recovery procedure
- Rotation without a new Purview label
- Vendor-hosted DKE service (SaaS)
- Automatic Entra ID app registration
- No end-of-life runtime or OS
- Key never assembled in one place
- Customer chooses the hosting region
Feature by feature
DuoKey and Utimaco, side by side
Vendor and support
124/7 support with SLA response times
Round-the-clock support with contractual response times for critical incidents.
Microsoft DKE coverage
3Native Microsoft 365 DKE endpoint
Serves the Microsoft GetKey and Decrypt calls used by Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
4Decrypt authorized by Entra ID groups
The key service itself restricts decryption to members of directory groups or roles.
Administration and access control
6Admin SSO and MFA
Administrators sign in through the corporate identity provider with multi-factor authentication.
7Fine-grained administrator RBAC
Custom roles and permissions scoped to keys, services or organisational units.
8Quorum (four-eyes) approval
Sensitive key operations need approval from several administrators.
9Contextual access on key use
Decrypt allowed or denied by IP range, country or time of day.
Monitoring
10Audit logs exported to a SIEM
Key and admin events forwarded to Splunk, Sentinel, QRadar or syslog.
11Built-in monitoring dashboard
Health and usage dashboard shipped with the product.
12SNMP monitoring
SNMP polling or traps for the operations team.
Zero Trust and audit
28Access rules changed live
DKE access rules are edited in a UI or API and apply at once, without config files or redeployment.
29Block rules that override allows
Explicit deny rules to cut decrypt access for a user, group, network or country during an incident.
30Several identity providers
Entra ID plus Okta, Keycloak or other OIDC providers for sign-in and group-based rules.
31Tamper-evident audit log
Each audit record is signed or hash-chained, so edits and deletions are detectable.
32Optional mTLS on decrypt calls
A client-certificate check on DKE decrypt calls, on top of the Entra ID token.
Availability and key lifecycle
13High-availability cluster
Active-active nodes so the key service survives a node failure.
14Multi-site or geo-redundant deployment
Survives the loss of a whole data centre.
15Key backup and recovery procedure
Documented backup and restore of keys after an incident.
16Old documents open after rotation
Content protected with a previous key version stays readable.
17Rotation without a new Purview label
Rotating the key does not require a new label or a relabelling campaign.
18Scheduled key rotation
Automatic rotation on a schedule.
Hosting and deployment
19Vendor-hosted DKE service (SaaS)
The vendor runs the DKE endpoint; nothing for the customer to host.
20On-premises option
Run the whole DKE stack inside your own perimeter.
21Automatic Entra ID app registration
The DKE app registration is created for you instead of manual portal steps.
Key storage, compliance and exit
23FIPS 140 Level 3 key storage
Keys protected by a FIPS 140-2 or 140-3 Level 3 validated module.
24Key never assembled in one place
Multi-Party Computation or threshold cryptography: no single node holds the whole key.
25Vendor ISO/IEC 27001 certified
The vendor's own operations are ISO/IEC 27001 certified.
26Customer chooses the hosting region
Pick where the key service and keys are hosted.
Why teams choose DuoKey
Key differences with Utimaco
01
Groups, not individual users
DKE Anchor grants decrypt permissions user by user, by email address. DuoKey authorizes by Entra ID group and adds IP, country and time rules.
02
Logs your SOC can use
Utimaco's guide documents local log files rotated daily. DuoKey exports audit events to Splunk, Sentinel, QRadar or syslog, and shows live health and request metrics per service.
03
Nothing to install
DKE Anchor is installed and run by the customer, with manual Azure app registration and tested platforms that include CentOS 8.2, now end of life. DuoKey runs the DKE service and creates the app registration for you.
04
MPC instead of a single HSM
Utimaco generates and stores the DKE key in one HSM. With DuoKey's MPC backend the key is never assembled in one place.
What Utimaco does well
Utimaco brings FIPS 140-2 Level 3 and Common Criteria certified HSMs, SNMP, 24/7 premium support, B2B tenants and decryption of older key versions. It is a natural fit for organisations already operating Utimaco HSMs.
FAQ
Is DuoKey an alternative to Utimaco for Microsoft 365 DKE?
Yes. DuoKey provides the customer-held second key and the DKE service that Microsoft 365 calls, operated by DuoKey or deployed on your own infrastructure.
Can I migrate from Utimaco to DuoKey?
Yes. Create a DuoKey DKE service and a sensitivity label for new content, and keep the existing Utimaco service running for documents already protected with it until they are re-labelled or reach the end of retention.
How were these criteria chosen?
They follow the sections of a customer DKE and key management RFP: support, Microsoft DKE coverage, administration, monitoring, availability, hosting, key storage and exit. Every cell links to the public document it is based on.
Evidence
Every claim on this page, sourced
Utimaco
- [1]utimaco.comcriteria 1https://utimaco.com/sites/default/files/2022-09/Utimaco_Global_Maintenance_Support_Services_Policy_v2.0.pdf
- [2]support.hsm.utimaco.comcriteria 2, 6, 7, 8, 12https://support.hsm.utimaco.com/documents/20182/32706/SecurityServer+Se/7fe27d35-c5dd-4f7a-9501-24b00e22533d
- [3]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 3, 33https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/utimaco-double-key-encryption-dke-and-cryptoserver-hsm/1.0.0/verify-encryption-and-decryption-with-dke-on-microsoft-365-client
- [4]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 4, 30, 16, 17https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/utimaco-double-key-encryption-dke-and-cryptoserver-hsm/1.0.0/utimaco-dke-anchor-manager
- [5]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 5, 32https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/utimaco-double-key-encryption-dke-and-cryptoserver-hsm/1.0.0/configure-the-application-yml-file
- [6]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 10, 31https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/utimaco-double-key-encryption-dke-and-cryptoserver-hsm/1.0.0/logging
- [7]utimaco.comcriteria 11https://utimaco.com/data-protection/gp-hsm/utrust-general-purpose-hsm
- [8]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 28https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/utimaco-double-key-encryption-dke-and-cryptoserver-hsm/1.0.0/execute-the-dke-anchor-manager-on-linux
- [9]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 29https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/utimaco-double-key-encryption-dke-and-cryptoserver-hsm/1.0.0/deleting-a-user-for-a-key
- [10]utimaco.comcriteria 13, 14https://utimaco.com/data-protection/trust-as-a-service/general-purpose-hsm-as-a-service
- [11]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 15https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/using-an-rdbms-for-key-storage-and-cryptoserver/1.0.0/backup
- [12]utimaco.comcriteria 19, 20, 23, 24https://utimaco.com/data-protection/gp-hsm/application-package/double-key-encryption
- [13]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 21https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/utimaco-double-key-encryption-dke-and-cryptoserver-hsm/1.0.0/register-dke-anchor-service-with-azure
- [14]integration-guides.utimaco.comcriteria 22https://integration-guides.utimaco.com/utimaco-double-key-encryption-dke-and-cryptoserver-hsm/1.0.0/minimum-system-requirements
- [15]utimaco.comcriteria 25https://utimaco.com/news/blog-posts/achieving-iso-27001-certification-setting-high-standards-security
- [16]utimaco.comcriteria 27https://utimaco.com/data-protection/trust-as-a-service/enterprise-key-manager-as-a-service
DuoKey
- [1]docs.duokey.comcriteria 1, 2https://docs.duokey.com/docs/why-mpc
- [2]docs.duokey.comcriteria 3https://docs.duokey.com/docs/double-key-encryption/cockpit-v2/overview
- [3]docs.duokey.comcriteria 4, 29https://docs.duokey.com/docs/double-key-encryption/cockpit-v2/access-policies
- [4]docs.duokey.comcriteria 5https://docs.duokey.com/docs/double-key-encryption/operations/b2b-collaboration
- [5]docs.duokey.comcriteria 6, 31https://docs.duokey.com/docs/cockpit/security
- [6]docs.duokey.comcriteria 7https://docs.duokey.com/docs/cockpit/administration
- [7]docs.duokey.comcriteria 8https://docs.duokey.com/docs/cockpit/key-policies
- [8]docs.duokey.comcriteria 9https://docs.duokey.com/docs/cockpit/access-policies
- [9]docs.duokey.comcriteria 10https://docs.duokey.com/docs/openshift-on-prem/security/compliance-audit
- [10]docs.duokey.comcriteria 11, 32, 33https://docs.duokey.com/docs/double-key-encryption/setup/dke-service-deployment
- [11]docs.duokey.comcriteria 28https://docs.duokey.com/docs/double-key-encryption/operations/zero-trust-access-control
- [12]docs.duokey.comcriteria 30https://docs.duokey.com/docs/developer/administration-api
- [13]docs.duokey.comcriteria 13https://docs.duokey.com/docs/openshift-on-prem/vm-deployment
- [14]docs.duokey.comcriteria 14https://docs.duokey.com/docs/openshift-on-prem/mpc-cluster
- [15]docs.duokey.comcriteria 15https://docs.duokey.com/docs/openshift-on-prem/operations/backup-recovery
- [16]docs.duokey.comcriteria 16, 17, 21https://docs.duokey.com/docs/double-key-encryption/cockpit-v2/dke-configuration
- [17]docs.duokey.comcriteria 19https://docs.duokey.com/docs/double-key-encryption/knowledgebase
- [18]docs.duokey.comcriteria 20, 22, 24https://docs.duokey.com/docs/openshift-on-prem/prerequisites
- [19]docs.duokey.comcriteria 23https://docs.duokey.com/docs/oracle-tde/overview
- [20]duokey.comcriteria 25https://duokey.com/en/compliance/iso-27001
- [21]docs.duokey.comcriteria 26https://docs.duokey.com/docs/double-key-encryption/faq
- [22]docs.duokey.comcriteria 27https://docs.duokey.com/docs/pkcs11-lib/function-coverage
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