Confidential computing
Paradigm where data is not readable by the cloud operator + hypervisor + adjacent VMs. Hardware-TEE-based (SGX, SEV-SNP, TDX, ARM CCA). Confidential Computing Consortium (Linux Foundation 2019).
Three pillars: encryption-in-transit (TLS), encryption-at-rest (storage encryption), encryption-in-use (confidential computing). Use cases: regulated industries (healthcare, finance), multi-party computation (federated-AI training), cloud key management (HSM substitute). Cloud deployments: Azure Confidential Compute, Google Confidential Computing, AWS Nitro Enclaves. 2024 trend: confidential-AI inference — run LLM inference where the operator cannot read prompts. Apple Private Cloud Compute (2024) iPhones use Apple-silicon-based confidential computing for iOS-AI features.