Platform Gets EAL Security Certification for Grid Products

Published: June 6, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Grid computing software maker Platform Computing has gone the extra mile for proving the security of LSF HPC 6.2 and MultiCluster products and attained Common Criteria certification for them.

According to Ian MacKay, director of engineering operations at Platform, the LSF HPC software, which is used to create a grid of computing resources, was tested atop a cluster of servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 2. That operating system was itself certified at the Common Criteria EAL 3 level, while Platform's LSF HPC grid software was certified at the EAL 2 level. The LSF software creates a local grid, while the MultiCluster extensions allow for the creation of a grid that spans multiple geographical locations.

While there are higher EAL certification levels, MacKay says that the EAL 2 certification was a stating point. To reach EAL 4 certification, auditors have to do a lot of very close examination of source code, which takes time. Platform may eventually get the higher certification levels, particularly if government and academic research institutions start requiring such certifications inside their computing infrastructure, since they are generally connecting to researchers outside the facility. "Our plan is to work with our customers on EAL certification, since they are the ones driving this," says MacKay. "Our customers are allowing us to get our feet wet and understand the Common Criteria process."