This year has been a big one for the Confidential Computing Consortium, with a great deal of activity in the technical, outreach and governance spheres. The most obvious difference was the Governing Board’s decision to appoint me as Executive Director. I’ve been involved with the CCC since its inception in a variety of roles, from Premier member representative to Treasurer to General member representative to the Governing Board. I’m delighted to be involved, working with the many members I already knew and getting to know those I didn’t, or who have joined recently. Another major change was that our Chair of the GB since the foundation of the CCC in October 2019, Stephen Walli of Microsoft, stepped down, handing over to the previous vice-Chair, Ron Perez of Intel. The transition was seamless, and we thank Stephen for his amazing leadership and service and Ron for his stepping up into the role.
Member survey
One of my first actions as Executive Director was to initiate a survey to help align the activities of the Consortium with members’ priorities. This was backed up by conversations with various members and was extremely helpful in allowing me to decide where to be putting in the most effort. The main priorities expressed were:
- End-User involvement
- Use cases
- Regulator/standards engagement
- Industry visibility
- Increased AsiaPac activity/involvement
- Member meet-ups
- Conference speaking
The Governing Board endorsed these and they have set the scene for the work we have been doing for the second half the year and will continue into 2024. I am planning a similar survey next year.
TAC and SIGs
The Technical Advisory Council (TAC) continues to be well-attended and the venue for much discussion, generally meeting for two hours every two weeks. We often host presentations from external bodies or projects which are relevant or technically adjacent to Confidential Computing. Another important task that the TAC undertakes is working with open source projects which are interested in joining the CCC. The TAC provides technical and governance oversight and support through the process, and we currently have seven projects, with another two close to admission and at least two more going through the process. Having a strong ecosystem of open source projects is vital for the healthy growth of Confidential Computing and is one of the core aims of the CCC.
The TAC also administers and coordinates the activities of several Special Interest Groups (SIGs). The number of these increased to three this year: the Governance, Risk & Compliance SIG (GRC), the Attestation SIG and the Linux kernel SIG. This last (and newest) is intended to work with the Linux kernel community to shepherd in work from members and the community and to allow communication to avoid “surprise” architectural or design changes and ease acceptance of new CC-related work.
Another important decision which is related to the work of the TAC was the decision to recruit a Technical Community Architect (TCA) to help coordinate the work of the TAC, the SIGs and the open source projects as the work they do grows. More news on this will follow very shortly.
Brief listing of activities through the year
The Confidential Computing Consortium was involved in many activities during the year, including sponsoring, attending or participating in conferences across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. The list below includes most of the significant activities.
Jan/Feb
FOSDEM – Brussels
State of Open Con – London
Mar/Apr
FOSS Backstage – Berlin and online
OC3 – online
Website refresh and update
Mike Bursell appointed as Executive Director
May
Wikipedia entry created – Confidential computing
Jun/July
Inaugural Confidential Computing Summit (250 attendees) – recordings available on-demand) and Happy Hour – San Francisco
Aug/Sep
DEFCON – Las Vegas
Diana Initiative – Las Vegas
OSS EU – Bilbao
Kubecon Asia – Shanghai
Oct/Nov
LF Member Summit – Monterey
PET Summit Asia – Singapore
Dec
OSS Japan – Tokyo
New members
We are delighted to have welcomed the following new members in 2023:
- Acurast
- BeekeeperAI
- California Health Medical Reserve Corps
- Canonical Group Limited
- Cryptosat
- enclaive
- Hushmesh
- Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd
- SUSE LLC
- Spectro Cloud, Inc.
We have a number of other organizations currently considering membership, who we hope to welcome early in 2024.
Planning for 2024
As we move into 2024, we have lots of plans to continue promoting Confidential Computing globally. Here are some areas in which you can expect to see movement:
- Clearly definition of the benefits of membership is available on the website
- Closer work with and support for start-ups in the ecosystem
- Lots of events, including an expanded Confidential Computing Summit
- A marketing package for events to allow quicker and further reaching involvement for all members attending
- Work on use cases
- Appearance of our new Technical Community Architect
Final word
I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the Confidential Computing Consortium and the larger ecosystem over the past twelve months. In particular, thank you to all those who make the CCC work through their involvement with our various committees and SIGs. I would also like to send our best wishes to Helen Lau from the Linux Foundation who has departed (for now, we hope!) on parental leave and to thank Ben Sternthal and Riann Kleinhans for their work in supporting our mission. Finally, may I wish you all the best for the festive season and a prosperous New Year.
Mike Bursell
Executive Director, Confidential Computing Consortium
