Sanitizing memory of cloud systems

A computer program product for sanitizing memory in a cloud environment, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage device having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions readable and executable by a computer to perform a method comprising:

• receiving a hypercall resulting from a call from an application running in a computer, wherein the hypercall is to a hypervisor that manages a virtual memory in a cloud environment, wherein the hypercall directs the hypervisor to sanitize data in the virtual memory, wherein the data in the virtual memory is allocated for use by the application, and wherein the computer is a physical computer that communicates with the cloud environment via a network;
• and
• in response to receiving the hypercall, sanitizing the data in the virtual memory that is allocated for use by the application, wherein sanitizing the data applies a data remanence policy that prevents remanence data in the virtual memory from being accessed by an unauthorized user.

A computer system comprising one or more processors, one or more computer readable memories, and one or more computer readable storage mediums, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more computer readable storage mediums for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more computer readable memories, the stored program instructions comprising:

• program instructions to receive a hypercall from an application running in a computer, wherein the hypervisor that manages a virtual memory in a cloud environment, wherein the hypercall directs the hypervisor to sanitize data in the virtual memory, wherein the data in the virtual memory is allocated for use by the application, and wherein the computer is a physical computer that communicates with the cloud environment via a network;
• and
• program instructions to, in response to receiving the hypercall, sanitize the data in the virtual memory that is allocated for use by the application, wherein sanitizing the data applies a data remanence policy that prevents remanence data in the virtual memory from being accessed by an unauthorized user.