Azure Confidential Computing at Inspire 2023

Confidential computing has been growing in interest from customers in order to maximize their defense in depth for data protection in Azure.  Beyond traditional means of protecting data at rest and in transit, confidential computing protects data in use while processing in memory, enabled by new hardware available in Azure. Just as https is a way to protect data in transit, confidential computing can be seen as a way to protect data in use.

New service announcement

Azure Virtual Desktop running on confidential VMs is now generally available, adding to the services available on Azure confidential computing, as we continue to buildout broader capabilities for confidential computing across the Azure infrastructure. Customers can select an AMD SEV-SNP DCasv5 or ECasv5-series confidential VM for their Windows 11 virtual desktop. These VMs provide a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) with attestation capability. These virtual desktops have enhanced guest protection by encrypting VM memory using keys generated by the CPU and unavailable to Azure operators. This helps deny the hypervisor and other host management components access to the VM memory. 

Live partner presentations

We have two ACC partners presenting at Inspire:

Please join me and SAS Senior Director of Product Management, Marty Tomasi, on a 15-minute live presentation with Q and A on Wednesday, July 19, 12:00 PM - 12:15 PM PDT: Run your most sensitive SAS Viya workloads on AMD SEV-SNP confidential VMs on Azure (microsoft.com)

And we will have BeeKeeperAI cofounder and Chief Commercial Officer, Mary Beth Chalk appearing in a live 5-minute interstitial interview on Tuesday, July 18, at approximately 12:25 PM PDT.  Mary Beth will talk about their innovative confidential clean room solution on Azure and how it is assisting physicians in shrinking the time to diagnosis rare childhood diseases from 10 years to a matter of minutes. Please tune in to the main Inspire live video stream to view the interview.

Additional recent highlights

On June 29th, at the first annual Confidential Computing Summit, the three use case awards at the event went to ISV solutions that run on Azure. Read the ACC at the Confidential Computing Summit recap blog for more details. 

On July 12th, SAS announced the general availability of SAS Viya on AMD SEV-SNP confidential VMs on Azure. This will allow single tenant Viya users, especially those in financial services, to better protect their sensitive data throughout its lifecycle, including while in use in memory. Visit the SAS Viya on Azure confidential VMs microsite to learn more.