When you are creating digital certificates, you do not have to follow the X509 standards. However, you need to be aware of the implications and effects not following the standard will have on your organization. First, you will not be able to easily share certificates for multiple purposes. Next, you will have to supply a large amount of certificates to external users, as their existing certificates will be incompatible with your own type. Not following standards can be costly, as well as create many redundancies.
Advantages to Following X509 Certificate Standards
There are advantages to following the X509 certificate standards for organizations. First, they can use a single certificate across several platforms. This means that users will only require one occurrence of this certificate on their computers. Next, sharing certificates with external users is also simplified. Again, you can distribute a single occurrence, which can be used to access multiple applications. By following the standards, you also cut down on the amount of time needed to create certificates, and are able to easier manage your existing ones.