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Simplifying the Development of Cloud Services on Intel® SGX

Acompany Co., Ltd. (Headquartered in Nishi-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan; CEO: Ryosuke Takahashi; hereinafter referred to as “Acompany”) has published a research paper co-authored with researchers from Intel, a global leader in confidential computing.

In this research, we developed a technology that enables secure and flexible serverless computing on Intel® Software Guard Extensions (Intel® SGX), a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology.

Our new technology enables users to easily and securely deploy services on Intel® SGX in cloud environments.

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Background

At Acompany, we utilize Intel® Software Guard Extensions (Intel® SGX), a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology developed by Intel, as part of our product AutoPrivacy DataCleanRoom, which enables secure data collaboration with a strong focus on privacy and security.

Currently, Acompany is engaged in research and development to enhance AutoPrivacy DataCleanRoom with more general-purpose and flexible data collaboration logic. As part of this effort, we have developed a technology that enables secure and flexible serverless computing on Intel® SGX, allowing users to easily deploy arbitrary programs.

Our new technology has already been applied and validated across multiple domains, as outlined below:

AIxtal Corporation (Headquartered in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan; CEO: Masaki Takaishi)

Their technology has enabled Process Informatics—an AI-driven approach to optimizing manufacturing—to be carried out within a confidential computing environment.

This allowed the company to securely share encrypted manufacturing process and condition data across organizations, without exposing raw data, and to conduct validation for end-to-end process optimization.

Nagoya University Hospital, Tokai National Higher Education and Research System (Located in Showa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan; Director: Shoichi Maruyama)

In the medical domain, a secure data-sharing platform is being developed to support multi-institutional clinical research. This initiative enables the safe exchange of medical data between institutions.

Overview of Our Research

Confidential serverless computing on Intel® SGX requires a “nested” attestation※1 scheme, which ensures the security and integrity of TEE-protected workloads. Previously, implementing nested attestation has required Intra-Enclave Isolation※2 technology.

However, Intel® SGX does not provide built-in support for intra-enclave isolation. As a result, prior research has implemented intra-enclave isolation using software-based techniques, which pose several limitations for real-world applications—such as limited software compatibility and performance overhead.

In this research, we leveraged the Key Separation and Sharing (KSS)※3 feature of Intel® SGX to build a secure nested attestation scheme without relying on intra-enclave isolation.

Our scheme enables secure serverless computing on Intel® SGX while significantly improving its practicality and usability.

※1 Nested attestation: An attestation scheme that enables multi-step verification for dynamically provisioned modules.

※2 Intra-Enclave Isolation: A technique for securely isolating multiple processes within the same enclave to prevent unauthorized access between them.

※3 KSS (Key Separation and Sharing): An extension feature of Intel® SGX that enables fine-grained identification and key derivation for each enclave.

Looking Forward

Acompany will continue its collaboration with Intel to explore wider adoption of this confidential serverless computing capability, contributing to the evolution of privacy-first infrastructure powered by Intel® SGX and next-generation secure architectures.

What is Confidential Computing?

Confidential computing is a technology that enables secure computation on sensitive data while keeping it encrypted throughout processing. It typically relies on hardware-backed Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), which provide not only confidentiality—ensuring that data remains protected—but also integrity, by verifying that the execution code has not been tampered with and matches the intended logic.

In Japan, confidential computing has been recognized as one of the required features of national Government Cloud. Globally, it has already been adopted by major tech companies such as Apple and Google, as well as by organizations like the U.S. Navy and Army—highlighting its rapid adoption and growing real-world applications worldwide.

Company Overview

Company Name: Acompany Co., Ltd.

Company Representative: Ryosuke Takahashi

Headquarters: Nagono Campus, 2-14-1 Nagono, Nishi-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

Established: June 2018

URL: https://acompany.tech/

Business Details: Development and provision of data clean room solution “AutoPrivacy DataCleanRoom” and privacy governance solution “AutoPrivacy Governance”. Consulting regarding privacy protection technology.

Contact Information

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Contact Form: https://en.acompany.tech/contact/