As cyber threats develop extra refined and knowledge privateness rules develop sharper tooth, chief CIOs are below growing strain to safe enterprise knowledge at each stage — at relaxation, in movement, and now, more and more, in use.
Confidential computing, a expertise that protects knowledge whereas it’s being processed, is changing into an integral part of enterprise safety methods. Whereas the promise is obvious, the trail to implementation is complicated and calls for strategic coordination throughout enterprise, IT, and compliance groups.
Itai Schwartz, co-founder and CTO at Thoughts, explains confidential computing permits safe knowledge processing even in decentralized environments, which is especially essential for AI workloads and collaborative purposes.
“Distant attestation capabilities additional assist a zero-trust method by permitting programs to confirm the integrity of workloads earlier than granting entry,” he says by way of e mail.
CIOs Turning to Confidential Computing
At its core, confidential computing makes use of trusted execution environments (TEEs) to isolate delicate workloads from the broader computing atmosphere. This ensures that delicate knowledge stays encrypted even whereas in use — one thing conventional safety strategies can’t absolutely obtain.
“CIOs ought to deal with confidential computing as an augmentation of their current safety stack, not a alternative,” says Heath Renfrow, CISO and co-founder at Fenix24.
He says a balanced method permits CIOs to boost safety posture whereas assembly regulatory necessities, with out sacrificing enterprise continuity.
The expertise is very useful in sectors like finance, healthcare, and the general public sector, the place regulatory compliance and safe multi-party knowledge collaboration are high priorities.
Confidential computing is especially useful in industries dealing with extremely delicate knowledge, explains Anant Adya, govt vp and head of Americas at Infosys. “It permits safe collaboration with out exposing uncooked knowledge, serving to banks detect fraud throughout establishments whereas preserving privateness,” he explains by way of e mail.
Implementation With out Disruption
Regardless of its potential, implementing confidential computing will be disruptive if not dealt with fastidiously. This implies CIOs should begin with a phased and layered technique.
“Start by figuring out essentially the most delicate workloads, reminiscent of these involving regulated knowledge or cross-border collaboration, and isolate them inside TEEs,” Renfrow says. “Then combine confidential computing with current IAM, DLP, and encryption frameworks to scale back operational friction.”
Adya echoes that sentiment, noting organizations can combine confidential computing by adopting a phased method that aligns with their current safety structure. He recommends beginning with high-risk workloads like monetary transactions or well being knowledge earlier than increasing deployment.
Schwartz emphasizes the significance of setting long-term expectations for deployment.
“Introducing confidential computing is a giant change for organizations,” he says. “A typical method is to outline a coverage the place each new data-sensitive element shall be created utilizing confidential computing, and current parts shall be migrated over time.”
Jason Soroko, senior fellow at Sectigo, stresses the significance of integrating confidential computing into the broader enterprise structure. “CIOs ought to think about the worth of separating ‘person house’ from a ‘safe house,’” he says.
Enclaves are perfect for storing secrets and techniques like PKI key pairs and digital certificates, permitting delicate workloads to be remoted from their authentication capabilities.
Addressing Efficiency and Scalability
One of many primary challenges CIOs face when deploying confidential computing is efficiency overhead. TEEs can introduce latency and should not scale simply with out optimization.
“To handle efficiency and scalability whereas sustaining enterprise worth, CIOs can prioritize high-impact workloads,” Renfrow says. “Focus TEEs on workloads with the very best confidentiality necessities, like monetary modeling or AI/ML pipelines that depend on delicate knowledge.”
Adya suggests holding fewer delicate computations outdoors TEEs to scale back the load. “Offload solely essentially the most delicate computations, and leverage {hardware} acceleration and cloud-managed confidential computing providers to enhance effectivity,” he recommends.
Soroko provides that {hardware} choice is crucial, suggesting CIOs needs to be selecting TEE {hardware} that has an applicable degree of acceleration. “Mix TEEs with hybrid cryptographic methods like homomorphic encryption to scale back overhead whereas sustaining knowledge safety,” he says.
For scalability, Renfrow recommends infrastructure automation, for instance adopting infrastructure-as-code and DevSecOps pipelines to dynamically provision TEE sources as wanted. “This improves scalability whereas sustaining safety controls,” he says.
Aligning with Zero Belief and Compliance
Confidential computing additionally helps zero-trust structure by imposing the precept of “by no means belief, all the time confirm.”
TEEs and distant attestation create a safe basis for workload verification, particularly in decentralized or cloud-native environments.
“Confidential computing extends zero-trust into the info utility layer,” Schwartz says. “It is a highly effective method to make sure that delicate operations are solely carried out below verified situations.”
Compliance is one other main driver for adoption, with rules reminiscent of GDPR, HIPAA, and CPRA more and more demand knowledge safety all through all the lifecycle — together with whereas knowledge is in use.
The rising listing of rules and compliance points would require CIOs to exhibit stronger safeguards throughout audits.
“Map confidential computing capabilities on to rising knowledge privateness rules,” Renfrow says. “This method can scale back audit complexity and strengthen the enterprise’s general compliance posture.”
Adya stresses the worth of collaboration throughout inner groups, stating profitable deployment requires coordination between IT safety, cloud architects, knowledge governance leaders, and compliance officers.
As confidential computing matures, CIOs will play a pivotal function in shaping how enterprises undertake and scale the expertise.
For organizations dealing with massive volumes of delicate knowledge or working below stringent regulatory environments, confidential computing is now not a fringe resolution — it’s changing into foundational.
Success will rely upon CIOs guiding adoption by way of a deal with integration, steady collaboration throughout their enterprise, and by aligning safety methods with enterprise targets.
“By aligning confidential computing with measurable outcomes — like lowered threat publicity, sooner companion onboarding, or simplified audit readiness — CIOs can clearly exhibit its enterprise worth,” Renfrow says.
