Event

Authored by Mike Bursell

On Tuesday, July 16th, the Confidential Computing Consortium proudly served as the Associate Sponsor for the third PET Summit in the Asia Pacific region, held once again in Singapore. This year’s event occurred at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, perfectly timed to coincide with Singapore’s PDP (Privacy Data Protection) week. The IMDA, Singapore’s leading organization for promoting digital innovation in business and society, supported it.

The summit saw a fantastic turnout. With over 400 registrations, the main hall was buzzing with activity, and the breakout hall next door was equally busy, hosting lively discussions among customers, ISVs, government representatives, and academic researchers. Your active participation and engagement were key to the success of the event.

IMDA’s Chief Executive, Chuen Hong LEW, kicked off the event, followed by an introduction from Mike Bursell, the CCC’s Executive Director. This year, the summit shifted the focus from simply educating about Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) to exploring their implementation, real-world use cases, and evangelization. A key highlight recognized the diverse range of PETs as an opportunity to match solutions to business needs, allowing organizations to choose the best-suited technologies rather than being limited to a single approach.

This addition is a significant win for Confidential Computing, which can integrate seamlessly with various PETs, enhancing privacy and transparency. This was highlighted in a panel discussion moderated by Mike Bursell titled “How Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) & Confidential Computing Balance Privacy & Transparency.” Panelists included Jesse Schrater (Intel), Zheng Leong (Automata Network), Anubhav Nayyar (Silence Laboratories), and Mark Bundgaard (Partisia). Following this, Mike introduced Confidential Computing and its potential, especially in multi-party and collaborative computing use cases.  Another session, also moderated by Mike, emphasized the need for PET evangelization at the organizational level, advocating for solutions that address specific business needs rather than adopting a “technology looking for a problem” approach.

The summit also highlighted the growing interest in Confidential Computing across the Asia Pacific region. Attendees included representatives from global organizations with a regional presence, local companies, and regional and national business organizations. A common theme in the moderated roundtable session was the importance of collaborating with regulators and standards bodies to promote accepted norms for deployments. The CCC actively encourages and coordinates this effort through its GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) Special Interest Group.

For more information about the GRC Special Interest Group or other parts of the CCC, please visit here.

• GRC Charter
• GRC Mailing List
• GRC Slack

With the rapid rise of generative AI and LLMs, we’re on the cusp of one of the largest technology super cycles in history; the global AI market size was already valued at $196B in 2023. However, C-suite execs and IT professionals alike cite data privacy concerns as the #1 obstacle to AI adoption for their organizations.

This is the year for confidential computing innovators and researchers, users and makers to come together, crack the code and unlock AI for the enterprise. The Confidential Computing Consortium, together with Opaque Systems, is co-hosting the Confidential Computing Summit this June with exactly that goal in mind: to expose and accelerate organizational initiatives around confidential data and AI.

Think of the Summit as our Consortium’s mission made manifest. A mega collaboration of the world’s top minds in confidential data, trustworthy AI and privacy-preserving generative AI unfolding over two days of learning and networking.

We anticipate hundreds of decision-makers and thought leaders in sectors such as financial services, insurance, telco, manufacturing, and healthcare. We have over 30 use cases lined up, selected from over 86 submissions, as well as dynamic discussions and visionary keynotes that include:

• Mike Bursell, Executive Director, Confidential Computing Consortium
• Raluca Ada Popa, Co-founder and President of Opaque, Associate Professor CS at UC Berkeley, and Chair of the Confidential Computing Summit
• Anand Pashupathy, VP & GM, Security Software and Services Division, Product Assurance and Security, Intel
• Karthik Narain, Group Chief Executive – Technology, Accenture
• Mark Russinovich, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Azure
• Nelly Porter, Director of Product Management, Google
• Jason Clinton, Chief Information Security Officer, Anthropic
• Sello Nevo, Director of the Meselson Center, RAND Corporation

And we’ll be delving deep into confidential computing and sensitive data – from national security to genomic epidemiology, noteworthy trends to critical best practices. You’ll learn about: 

• Confidential Computing
• Confidential Analytics
• Confidential AI
• Privacy-preserving Generative AI and LLM’s
• Privacy Enhancing Technologies
• Data Privacy and Compliance
• Secure Enclaves
• Confidential Computing Cloud Environments
• Confidential VM’s

With two full days to roll up our sleeves, open our collars and truly dig into the opportunities and challenges, we’re excited to see where the Summit will take us and what new possibilities will emerge. Check out the full agenda here.

In case you missed it, we’re offering a discount to all of our Confidential Computing Consortium members. Register here and get 15% off with our special promo code CCC15!

Confidential Computing is a transformative approach to protecting data in use, enabling computation in memory without exposing it to the rest of the system. As cloud-native technologies continue to evolve, KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2024 offers sessions at the forefront. This guide is your go-to resource for exploring the Confidential Computing offerings, ensuring you make the most of your conference experience.

Key Demos, Sessions and Posters 

Learn about Attested Containers for securing containerized workloads and other open source Confidential Computing demos at Intel’s booth, H5.

Poster Session: Kubernetes in the Confidential Computing Marvels: Unlocking SMPC Across Multi-Cloud Clusters

When: Wednesday, March 20 • 18:00 20:00

Who: Gilles Seghaier & Nayani Parameshwari, Astran

Find on KubeCon Schedule

Dive into the world of Secure Multiparty Computation (sMPC) with Kubernetes, exploring its application across multi-cloud clusters for enhanced data security.

Fortifying AI Security in Kubernetes with Confidential Containers (CoCo)

When: Thursday, March 21 • 14:30 15:05

Who: Suraj Deshmukh, Microsoft & Pradipta Banerjee, Red Hat

Find on KubeCon Schedule

A deep dive into securing AI models in Kubernetes using Confidential Containers, ensuring data privacy without sacrificing performance.

Memory Armor for SPIRE: Fortifying SPIRE with Confidential Containers (CoCo)

When: Thursday, March 21 • 17:25 18:00

Who: Matthew Bates, Stealth Security Startup & Suraj Deshmukh, Microsoft

Find on KubeCon Schedule 

Learn how Confidential Containers enhance the security of SPIRE servers, safeguarding sensitive signing keys against unauthorized access.

Confidential Containers for GPU Compute: Incorporating LLMs in a Lift-and-Shift Strategy for AI  

When: Thursday, March 21 • 16:30 17:05

Who: Zvonko Kaiser, NVIDIA

Find on KubeCon Schedule

An exploration of integrating confidential containers with GPU computing for AI/ML workloads, maintaining data confidentiality while leveraging computational power.

Additional Highlights

CRI-O Odyssey: Exploring New Frontiers in Container Runtimes

 An insight into the latest in container runtime technology, touching on Confidential Computing integration.

 Thursday, March 21 • 11:00 11:35

Towards a Cloud-Native, Scalable and Fault-Tolerant Platform for Digital Agriculture

A unique application of cloud-native technologies in agriculture, showcasing the potential of Kubernetes and Confidential Computing.

Wednesday, March 20 • 18:00 20:00

Confidential Computing at KubeCon

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2024 offers an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of Cloud and Compute. Whether you’re a developer, IT professional, or business leader, these sessions provide a wealth of knowledge and a unique chance to advance your understanding of the technology at the Confidential Computing Consortium and its critical role in the future of cloud-native technologies.

Bookmark this page and plan your schedule to make the most of the Confidential Computing sessions at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2024. See you there!