Only DuoKey
- 24/7 support with SLA response times
- Decrypt authorized by Entra ID groups
- Fine-grained administrator RBAC
- Quorum (four-eyes) approval
- Contextual access on key use
- 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
- Old documents open after rotation
- 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
Feature by feature
DuoKey and Entrust, 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.
22No end-of-life runtime or OS
The documented deployment does not depend on an unsupported framework or operating system.
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 Entrust
01
Group-aware decrypt
Entrust's DKE key checks the tenant GUID; user and group targeting happens in Purview labels. DuoKey also enforces group, IP, country and time rules at the key service on every decrypt.
02
Rotation behaviour documented
Entrust schedules DKE key rotation but its public guide does not state what happens to documents protected with earlier versions. DuoKey keeps rotated keys decrypt-only and never changes the Purview label URL.
03
Automatic Azure wiring
Entrust's integration guide walks through manual Entra ID portal steps. DuoKey creates the app registration through Microsoft Graph.
04
MPC instead of a single HSM
With nShield the key sits whole inside certified hardware. With DuoKey's MPC backend it is split across independent nodes and never assembled.
What Entrust does well
Entrust documents scheduled DKE rotation, tenant allow-lists, two-site active-active clusters, automatic backups, SIEM export to Sentinel, SNMP and a 30-day trial. Organisations standardised on nShield and KeyControl can keep DKE in that estate.
FAQ
Is DuoKey an alternative to Entrust 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 Entrust to DuoKey?
Yes. Create a DuoKey DKE service and a sensitivity label for new content, and keep the existing Entrust 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
Entrust
- [1]www.entrust.comcriteria 1https://www.entrust.com/it/sites/default/files/2026-08/entrust-support-welcome-pack-sb.pdf
- [2]www.entrust.comcriteria 2https://www.entrust.com/resources/trials/keycontrol
- [3]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 3https://docs.hytrust.com/DataControl/10.2/Online/Content/Books/Admin-Guide/Cloud-Key-Management-Vault/DKE/About-DKE.html
- [4]nshielddocs.entrust.comcriteria 4, 28, 29, 16https://nshielddocs.entrust.com/interops-docs/ms-dke-kc/create-dke-key.html
- [5]nshielddocs.entrust.comcriteria 5, 21https://nshielddocs.entrust.com/interops-docs/ms-dke-kc/configure-azure.html
- [6]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 6https://docs.hytrust.com/DataControl/10.3.1/Online/Content/Books/Admin-Guide/Cloud-Key-Management-Vault/CK_Auth/Cloud-Authentication-OIDC.html
- [7]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 7https://docs.hytrust.com/DataControl/10.2/Online/Content/Books/Admin-Guide/KC-Groups-and-User-Accts/KC-User-Accts.html
- [8]www.entrust.comcriteria 8, 14, 27https://www.entrust.com/es/sites/default/files/documentation/datasheets/keycontrol-kmip-ds.pdf
- [9]nshielddocs.entrust.comcriteria 10https://nshielddocs.entrust.com/interops-docs/ms-sentinel-kc/intro.html
- [10]www.entrust.comcriteria 11, 19https://www.entrust.com/it/sites/default/files/2024-04/dps-keycontrol-as-a-service-ds.pdf
- [11]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 12https://docs.hytrust.com/CryptographicSecurityPlatformVault/10.5.1/Online/Content/Books/Admin-Guide/KC-System-Config/SNMP/Configuring-System-Lvl-SNMP-Traps.html
- [12]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 30https://docs.hytrust.com/DataControl/Online/Content/Books/Admin-Guide/KC-Groups-and-User-Accts/Vault-Authentication-OIDC.html
- [13]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 31https://docs.hytrust.com/DataControl/Online/Content/Books/Admin-Guide/GUI-Reference/Audit-Log-Page.html
- [14]nshielddocs.entrust.comcriteria 33https://nshielddocs.entrust.com/interops-docs/ms-dke-kc/test-integration.html
- [15]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 13https://docs.hytrust.com/DataControl/Online/Content/Books/aaCommon/Product-Overview/KeyControl.html
- [16]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 15https://docs.hytrust.com/DataControl/Online/Content/Books/Admin-Guide/KC-Cluster-Maintenance/KC-Backup-and-Restore.html
- [17]docs.hytrust.comcriteria 18https://docs.hytrust.com/DataControl/Online/Content/Books/Admin-Guide/Cloud-Key-Management-Vault/DKE/Creating-CloudKey-for-DKE.html
- [18]www.entrust.comcriteria 20, 23, 26https://www.entrust.com/ro/digital-security/hsm/services/packaged-services/double-key-encryption-integration
- [19]www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.ukcriteria 25https://www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/services/476565860516863
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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