Global technology and security provider, Thales, has announced the launch of its CipherTrust Cloud Key Managements 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 OCIs other distributed cloud offerings. The HYOK feature has been designed to aid customer's implementation of data sovereignty and compliance objectives by enabling data encryption in OCI with keys controlled and managed externally to the cloud platform.

A study conducted by Thales reportedly discovered that while the world is becoming increasingly cloud-first, operational complexity within cloud environments remains a significant barrier for organisations. Despite an overall improvement in cloud security awareness, rising concerns around securing data has been noted with over half (55 percent) of security professionals reporting that data management is more complex in the cloud than in on-premises environments. In response, Thales stresses the necessity for a novel approach to securing cloud environments as their usage increases.

With the CipherTrust Cloud Key Management integration, Thales provides OCI customers with the capability to store and manage their encryption keys externally to OCI with an appliance that is entirely under their control and outside of the cloud. Customers also have the ability to localise their encryption keys and maintain control of their encrypted data in the cloud, addressing prevailing privacy and data sovereignty requirements while facilitating compliance demonstration to regulators.

Thales' external key management solution allows the move of sensitive data into Oracle Cloud Regions by storing the key in a different location from the encrypted data. This allows customers to maintain control over encryption keys management, whether they are used on-premises or in the cloud.

Thales CipherTrust Cloud Key Management, which is renowned for being an industry-leading multi-cloud encryption key lifecycle management solution, reportedly mitigates operational barriers across clouds and hybrid environments. The HYOK functionality allows OCI customers to maintain control over their data across different cloud providers in today's cloud-driven landscape.

Todd Moore, Vice President of Data Security Products at Thales, commented, "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."

Jeppe Larsen, Senior Vice President, OCI Security and Identity at Oracle, stated, "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."