Organizations Including NEC and UCSF Use Fortanix Confidential Computing Enclave Manager to Enable Secure Multi-Party Analysis of Private Data

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fortanix® Inc., the data-first multi-cloud security™ company, today announced organizations including multinational information technology and electronics company NEC and the University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF) Center for Digital Health Innovation are using Fortanix® Confidential Computing Enclave Manager and Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) to create trusted computing environments to help keep data private and protect intellectual property. These and other organizations are beginning to realize the power of combining and analyzing data with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to create tremendous business value.

In nearly every industry, the ability to combine data from multiple companies, subsidiaries or government sources helps increase efficiency, create new products and services, or improve some aspect of the business, but privacy laws and industry regulations can prevent or make it risky. To overcome this challenge, Privacy-Preserving Analytics with Intel SGX and Fortanix® Confidential Computing Enclave Manager is designed to unlock the ability to monetize or commercialize private data while helping companies comply with privacy laws and reducing the risk of a data breach.

“As an early pioneer of using Intel SGX, Fortanix allows businesses to quickly create new confidential computing applications and secure data in use, helping them glean valuable business insights that weren’t previously possible,” said Ambuj Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder, Fortanix. “One of the best parts is that Fortanix® technology works without requiring any modification to existing applications, and it provides enterprise-grade management of the Intel SGX enclaves.”

NEC Analyzes Customer Behavior While Protecting Privacy

Multinational information technology and electronics company NEC is using Intel SGX and Fortanix® Confidential Computing Enclave Manager to build a confidential computing system that more securely shares, analyzes, and manages partner and customer data.

“We chose Fortanix Enclave Manager using Intel’s upcoming Xeon Scalable “Ice Lake” platforms to run our applications because the solution enables us to encrypt all data while in use, provides precise access controls for the analytics data, and helps protect the privacy of the company’s or customer’s information,” said Shinji Abe, Executive Director for Technology, NEC. “The innovative Confidential Computing system will enable multiple companies to share and analyze customer data more securely across industrial boundaries, creating value for both the companies and their customers.”

UC San Francisco Validates Healthcare AI Algorithms

The University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF) Center for Digital Health Innovation is using Intel SGX and Fortanix® Confidential Computing Enclave Manager for its BeeKeeper AI project, which helps secure and streamline the validation of datasets and algorithms associated with embedded AI capabilities. The first application to use BeeKeeper AI is a clinical-grade algorithm that rapidly identifies those needing blood transfusions in the Emergency Department following trauma.

“UCSF’s Center for Digital Health Innovation (CDHI) is pleased to be working with Fortanix®, Microsoft®, and Intel to establish the world’s first confidential computing platform to accelerate the development of clinical algorithms. The solution enables healthcare data providers to maintain control and better preserve the privacy of their data in ways that allow researchers and developers to accelerate the validation of proprietary models,” said Michael S. Blum, MD FACC, Associate Vice Chancellor for Informatics and Chief Digital Transformation Officer, Executive Director, Center for Digital Health Innovation, Professor of Medicine, Cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. “Using Fortanix Enclave Manager for orchestration of Intel’s SGX secure enclaves on Azure confidential computing infrastructure with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and CDHI’s clinical data transformation workflows, the platform will reduce the time and cost of developing an algorithm for use in clinical settings.”

For more information on Privacy-Preserving Analytics, read the solution brief here.

Additional Resources:

  • Fortanix Confidential Computing Enclave Manager Website
  • Fortanix® Confidential Computing Enclave Manager Datasheet
  • Webinar Featuring UCSF: Unlocking the Value of Private Data with Privacy-Preserving Analytics and Confidential Computing

About Fortanix:

Fortanix® is a data-first multi-cloud security company that decouples data security from the underlying infrastructure. Data remains secure whether the applications are running on-premises or in the cloud. Fortanix® provides solutions for confidential computing, encryption, key management, secrets management, tokenization and hardware security modules (HSM). Fortanix® is venture-backed and headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information, see https://fortanix.com/.

Intel, the Intel logo and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.

Contacts

Media Contact
Sammy Totah, BOCA Communications for Fortanix

Fortanix@bocacommunications.com