US 2013/0254841 A1 · SECURE CLOUD COMPUTING PLATFORM

Abstract

A secure cloud computing platform. The platform has a pool of secure computing devices such that each can be allocated to a customer as with other computing resources. Each secure computing device may be configured by a customer with a key and software for performing operations on sensitive data. The customer may submit data, defining a job for execution on the platform, as cyphertext. The secure computing device may perform operations on that data, which may include decrypting the data with the key and then executing the software to perform an operation on cleartext data. This operation, and the data on which it is performed, though in cleartext, may be inaccessible to the operator of the cloud computing platform. The device may operate according to a secure protocol under which the software is validated before loading and the device is provisioned with a key shared with the customer.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An apparatus comprising:

a programmable secure computing device associated with a cloud computing platform, wherein the programmable secure computing device is coupled to a network and at least one computing device of the cloud computing platform to provide a secured cloud computing service, the programmable secure computing device comprising:
first programmable circuitry to store security information;
second programmable circuitry to execute at least one programmable function, based at least in part on the security information and information received over the network, the at least one programmable function generating processed information;
control circuitry to:
receive and store the security information in the first programmable circuitry;
receive and store information defining the at least one programmable function in the second programmable circuitry;
and
provide the processed information to the at least one computing device of the cloud computing platform to perform a user-requested operation.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Secure cloud computing platform

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Secure cloud computing platform

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20