Thales, a leading global technology and security provider, today announced the launch of CipherTrust Cloud Key Management’s Hold Your Own Key (HYOK) in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) across all 45 Oracle Cloud Regions—including the recently launched Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud—and OCI’s other distributed cloud offerings. To help meet continued customer demand and the accelerated growth of the OCI platform, HYOK will help OCI customers achieve their data sovereignty and other compliance objectives more easily by encrypting data in OCI with keys that are controlled and managed outside of the cloud platform. The new HYOK capabilities expand on existing support for Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) in OCI.

According to the 2023 Thales Cloud Security Study, while the world has become cloud-first, operational complexity in cloud environments remains a significant obstacle for organizations. Overall, cloud security awareness has improved, but concerns around securing data are also rising, with over half (55 percent) of security professionals indicating it’s more complex to manage data in the cloud than it is in on-premises environments. As a result, as cloud usage grows, organizations need a new way to effectively secure cloud environments.

The CipherTrust Cloud Key Management integration enables OCI customers to store and manage their encryption keys outside OCI in a virtual or physical appliance that is entirely under their control and outside of the cloud. Customers can also localize their encryption keys wherever they choose and maintain control of their encrypted data in cloud environments. This approach helps address some of the key privacy and data sovereignty requirements organizations face while making it easier to demonstrate compliance to regulators.

The availability of the Thales external key management solution can help accelerate the move of sensitive data into Oracle Cloud Regions by storing the key in a location that is different than the encrypted data. This enables customers to maintain the same process for managing and controlling encryption keys, whether those keys are used on-premises or in the cloud

Thales CipherTrust Cloud Key Management, the industry-leading multi-cloud encryption key lifecycle management solution, alleviates operational barriers across clouds and hybrid environments. The HYOK functionality gives OCI customers the external key management capabilities necessary to navigate today’s cloud-driven landscape and remain in charge of their data, not just in OCI, but across other cloud providers.

Todd Moore, Vice President of Data Security Products at Thales: “Businesses are increasingly shifting away from legacy on-premises deployments and need assistance in moving their data to the cloud while maintaining security and compliance. As the industry leader in external key management, we’re proud to be the first to support HYOK features in OCI, equipping OCI customers with the necessary solutions to be successful in this journey. To further this best-in-class experience for our combined customer base, Thales is also the first supporting vendor for Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud initiatives.”

Jeppe Larsen, Senior Vice President, OCI Security and Identity at Oracle: “We’re dedicated to making OCI the most trusted cloud for security-sensitive workloads, including those in highly regulated regions and industries. Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud helps customers operating in Europe to address their data sovereignty requirements, and the HYOK integration with Thales enhances that offering. In addition, this partnership and integration will benefit U.S. customers in regulated industries such as financial services by enabling them to take full advantage of OCI, with the privacy and security benefits of HYOK from Thales.”