As organizations increasingly move their business-critical workloads to the public cloud, encryption is an effective and popular control for data protection. With encryption protecting the data, the risk then transfers to the encryption keys. Balancing control over security with shared, multi-group access is a source of anxiety for many organizations that have strict security, compliance and application-specific requirements for Key Management and Hardware Security Modules (HSM). One such example can be found in the hospital setting, where the electronic health record system that was traditionally on-site in the data center, has been replaced and these services have started moving their workloads to the cloud, and must assure patient and record privacy while still assuring speed and agility.
Intel® Software Guard Extensions (Intel® SGX) is a technology that provides a trusted execution environment to protect applications. Fortanix utilizes Intel® SGX as a building block to deliver Self-Defending Key Management Service™ (SDKMS), providing unified HSM and Key Management capabilities and delivers HSM-grade security with software-defined simplicity.
Recently Equinix launched Equinix SmartKey, powered by Fortanix and secured by Intel® SGX. SmartKey is a global SaaS key management and encryption service that simplifies data protection in any cloud. SmartKey is backed by Equinix’s interconnectivity and proximity to leading cloud services and data centers.
Intel is pleased to see this collaboration transform into a new global SaaS service addressing critical customer needs for secure cloud adoption. Fortanix Runtime Encryption Plugin capability is a great example of an innovation leveraging Intel® SGX. Fortanix plugin allows organizations to run custom cryptographic algorithms or sensitive business logic inside a trusted environment. Plugins, also available on Equinix SmartKey, provide application developers with extensibility and agility. Sign-up for trial of SmartKey, click here.
Visit our Software Guard Extensions page to learn more about Intel® SGX.