Server to Server authentication

[Rickster]

ARe there such things as server to server certifcates? I am looking for the most secure way to authenticate one of our server to a third party server without human intervention (except for setup and testing). Any ideas if there are not certifcates that will do the job?

Thanks in advance.

[meneer]

You can use server side certificates. They can be used to check the authenticity, but also for encryption. Besides they can be used for creating ipsec tunnels.

Alternative is using the SAML protocol to secure transactions between servers. SAML is an extension to the XML standard and as becoming a main stream protocol for authentication and single sign on.