OpenStack Barbican vs SAP Data Custodian Key Management Service

OpenStack Barbican is the OpenStack Key Manager service for storing, provisioning, and managing secrets such as keys, certificates, passwords, and raw binary data. Its barbican-api component provides an OpenStack-native REST API for managing secrets; barbican-worker and barbican-keystone-listener are also part of the service. The listener manages Barbican’s database records for Keystone projects when those projects are deleted. A plugin architecture lets operators connect software secret stores or hardware such as HSMs. Documented options include KMIP, Dogtag, and Vault secret-store plugins, as well as PKCS#11 crypto plugins. With PKCS#11, master encryption and HMAC keys can reside in an HSM. Operators can develop plugins for storage, generation, and event handling, though support status may be stable, experimental, or out-of-tree. The default Simple Crypto plugin stores its single encryption key in plaintext in barbican.conf, so service-node access must be restricted carefully. Container ACL settings do not carry over to associated secrets, and ACL functionality requires Keystone integration. Barbican is free under Apache 2.0; installation guidance assumes a working OpenStack deployment.

SAP Data Custodian Key Management Service is a cloud service accessed through the web for managing cryptographic keys. It supports three listed key types: AES, RSA, and ECC. Automated key rotation changes keys according to the service’s rotation capability, while key audit logs provide records of key-related activity. The service supports external key control and also lists a combined external-and-other control option, giving organizations more than one way to handle control of keys. Its deployment model is cloud, and its platform is web. SAP sells the service on a paid basis. Pricing is available on request, and no free plan is listed. Organizations can use the service as a web-based cloud option when AES, RSA, or ECC management, rotation, control choices, and audit logging are requirements.