Determine if key format conversions to/from PEM are excessive

[patmantru]

Per code review comments by @strantalis on #744 :

"Do we have to get a pem format here? Seems like we could have some unnecessary operations of getting a keypair converting it to pem then right back to the original type."

Should we be keeping keys in PEM format, or binary format, or is there any benefit to one over the other?

AC:

• Determine conversion performance cost between PEM and binary key format
• Decide if existing PEM storage and conversions should be retained
• Update code to remove (minimize) PEM usage if it is determined to be the better approach