Oracle Adds Free Confidential Computing Option to Cloud Service

Oracle today added a confidential computing capability to its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure service at no extra cost. The service is based on AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) or AMD Secure Memory Encryption (SME) processors.

Confidential computing promises to take encryption to the next level by securing data while it is loaded in memory, not just at rest or in transit. Prior to the arrival of confidential computing, all data running in memory was accessible as clear text. Now there are a range of processor families that enable data to be encrypted while running in memory.

Leo Leung, vice president of OCI product marketing for Oracle, said the number of use cases where confidential computing will be applied will be limited to regulated industries that need additional layers of cybersecurity. However, a recent survey of 452 IT and security professionals conducted by the Cloud Service Alliance (CSA) found more than a quarter of organizations (27%) surveyed are already using confidential computing platforms to better protect data, with another 55% planning to follow suit in the next two years.

The survey also found that more than two-thirds of respondents (67%) reported their organization already hosts sensitive data in the cloud, but less than a third (31%) were not confident or only slightly confident about their ability to protect sensitive data in a cloud environment, while another 44% said they were only moderately confident.