Environments
Environments are logical encapsulations that store palm vein biometric data. They are owned by organizations and represent the core data storage layer for identity matching in the trst platform.
What is an Environment?
An environment is a secure, isolated database that stores encrypted palm vein templates for a collection of users. Environments are owned by organizations and accessed by projects for enrollment and verification operations.
Key Characteristics:
- Owned by an organization (org_id)
- Stores encrypted biometric templates (not raw images)
- Supports 1:N matching (one scan against many templates)
- Optimized for fast lookup and matching
- Scales to millions of templates
- Templates are non-reversible and privacy-preserving
See Organizational Hierarchy → to understand how environments fit into the overall trst platform structure.
Comparison: Global vs Organization Environments
| Feature | Global Environment | Organization Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | trst organization | Customer organization |
| Enrollment | Public self-service | Business-controlled |
| Scope | Regional/national | Organization-specific |
| Database | Shared across projects | Isolated per organization |
| Project Control | Read-only (verification only) | Full control (if org matches) |
| User Data Ownership | User-controlled | Organization-controlled |
| Use Case | Public identification | Private authentication |
| Scale | Millions of users | Hundreds to thousands |
| Cost Model | Per verification | Per organization + per user |
Learn about Project Control Model → - Understand what projects can do based on environment ownership.
Creating an Environment
Contact trst support or your account manager to create a new environment.
Duplicate Detection
Environments will attempt to prevent the same palm from being enrolled against different user IDs.
It does this by checking new enrollments against existing templates in the environment.
Performance Considerations
Search Performance
Environment Size Impact:
| Template Count | Average Search Time | p95 Search Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 20ms | 50ms |
| 10,000 | 50ms | 120ms |
| 100,000 | 150ms | 300ms |
| 1,000,000 | 400ms | 800ms |
Optimization Strategies:
- Use multi-environment verification to search smaller environments first
- Partition large global environments by region
- Implement caching for frequently verified users
- Use metadata filtering to narrow search space
Security and Privacy
Template Encryption
All templates are encrypted:
At Rest:
- AES-256 encryption
- Unique encryption keys per environment
- Hardware security module (HSM) key storage
In Transit:
- TLS 1.3 for all API communication
- End-to-end encryption for Device-Com
Data Isolation
Organization Environment Isolation:
- Separate database schemas per organization
- Encrypted organization identifiers
- Access control at database level
Global Environment Protection:
- Regional data residency
- Compliance with local regulations
- User consent management
Privacy Compliance
GDPR Compliance:
- Right to erasure (delete enrollments)
- Data portability (export enrollment metadata)
- Consent tracking
- Audit logs for data access
Best Practices
Choosing Environment Type
Use Global Environment when:
- Building regional/national ID system
- Users need to enroll themselves
- Cross-application verification needed
- Large-scale public deployment
- User should control their own data
Use Organization Environment when:
- Building organization-specific system
- Business needs to control enrollment
- Data isolation required
- Corporate or private deployment
- Organization should manage user data
Environment Design
DO:
- Use descriptive environment names
- Document environment purpose
- Set appropriate verification thresholds
- Enable duplicate detection
- Plan for scalability
- Match project org_id with environment owner_org_id for full control
DON'T:
- Mix unrelated users in same environment
- Use overly strict thresholds (increases FRR)
- Disable audit logging
- Ignore retention policies
- Point projects to environments without understanding control implications
Next Steps
Now that you understand environments:
- Learn about Projects → - How projects use environments
- Explore Sensors → - Choose the right hardware
- View API Reference → - Interactive API documentation
Additional Resources
- Deployment: Global → - Global environment deployment
- Deployment: Organization → - Organization environment deployment
- Deployment: Hybrid → - Hybrid deployment strategies
- Security Best Practices → - Secure environment design