Intel Xeon E-2200 processors deliver additional layer of hardware-based security and manageability

Intel announced Thursday general availability of Intel Xeon E-2200 processors taking another step forward in data center security. Popular for small-medium business deployments, Intel Xeon E processors are also driving enhanced security usages with the additional layer of hardware-based security and manageability made possible by Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX). 

A key priority at Intel is enabling features that will help protect sensitive customer data – and Intel SGX does just that.

The new 8-core Intel Xeon E-2200 processors enable servers to operate at frequencies reaching up to 5.0 GHz (with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0) and feature expanded capacity for hardware-enhanced security with double the Intel SGX Enclave Page Cache (EPC), now 256MB, and side-channel mitigations in hardware. 

Intel invests heavily in security, and the larger enclave sizes enable larger code and datasets to be encrypted in the SGX enclave, expanding the usages of Intel SGX, and paving the way for additional data center security innovations like AI architectures including federated learning.

Federated Learning is a machine learning paradigm where many compute systems are “federated” together to analyze large and/or diverse datasets. However, current approaches to AI can require complex webs of trust, where the data or the algorithm could be exposed to an untrusted party. Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) such as Intel SGX provide a means for processing the data within protected enclaves.

This facilitates the advantages of cross-industry machine learning while still helping to maintain the privacy of individual data and the confidentiality of proprietary algorithms. Rival banks could build joint anti-money laundering models. Hospitals could use remote, 3rd party analytics on patient data. Retailers could monetize their purchase data while keeping a focus on user privacy.

Federated Learning is an example of new security innovations that Intel SGX can enable. Intel’s ecosystem partners bring new ideas to the table constantly with customer data protection as a top priority. Microsoft has been at the forefront of confidential computing in the cloud with Azure. 

“The new Intel Xeon E-2200 processor unlocks additional enclave space which opens up new scenarios and improves performance. Microsoft plans to roll-out Xeon E-2200 based confidential computing clusters in UK South and Canada within the first quarter of 2020,” said Scott Woodgate, Azure Security, Microsoft.

Confidential Computing is an emerging industry initiative focused on securing data in-use, especially in multi-tenant cloud environments where the goal is to keep sensitive data isolated from all other privileged portions of the system stack. 

Intel SGX plays a large role in making this capability a reality, both at our own company and throughout the industry. As computing moves to span multiple environments from on-prem to public cloud to edge, it is no wonder companies are looking for protection controls that help to safeguard sensitive IP and workload data wherever their data resides.

Intel is also making investments in the ecosystem like joining the Confidential Computing Consortium and contributing the Intel SGX Software Development Kit to support a broad industry push to address the latest frontier for data confidentiality in the cloud.