The launch changes the landscape of cloud computing and, following Microsoft’s public launch of Windows Server 2016 today, brightsolid can now offer the most secure cloud solution available on the market. It is the only cloud services company in the world with this capability today.
Shielded VMs protect virtual machines and their data from the threat of compromised credentials or malicious administrators. This gives customers the confidence and assurance that their data is completely private, even from their hosting provider.
Richard Higgs, CEO of brightsolid, is confident that the introduction of Shielded VMs on Windows Server 2016 will break down the security barrier to cloud implementation because only the owner has access to data. This is particularly important for security conscious organisations such as public sector bodies and financial institutions.
He says: “In the future people will look back at the clouds up until today and go how did they do that? in the same way as we look back on the space programs of the 60s, they did it in spite of the technology that was available - this release is that big a step up in capability.”
“It makes a big difference knowing that any data that passes through the fabric onto the disk is encrypted through the Shielded VM. It means that if someone runs off with my encrypted data there’s no way they can run it anywhere else.
“Shielded VMs are going to change the way we look at cloud, that is absolutely clear. This technology is going to enable us to position the cloud, in all scenarios, as the most secure solution. This truly puts Scotland on the map for cloud innovation.”
brightsolid’s emerging technologies team have been working in partnership with Microsoft since May 2015. The project was made possible because of brightsolid’s culture and commitment to innovation and ideas.
David Fleming, emerging technologies engineer at brightsolid, says: “Strong and simple security is our core deliverable to customers. Shielded VMs are an evolution in our ability to completely isolate and protect sensitive customer data in our clouds.
“Shielded VMs don’t simply encrypt data, they ensure that only the owner of a VM can access it. These VMs can only run on known and cryptographically provably healthy hosts – nothing like this has existed in our industry until now.
“I’m quietly yet enormously proud to have built the world’s first production implementation of a Guarded Fabric which hosts Shielded VMs, and look forward to see how we and our customers use the new capability without ever having to compromise on security.”
