Securing the Metal: End-to-End Encryption on Google Cloud

In the security paradigm of the past, we focused on two states of data: At Rest (encrypted on disk) and In Transit (encrypted via SSL/TLS). But as cyber-attacks become more sophisticated, the most vulnerable state has emerged: Data in Use.

At Leapjuice, we have moved beyond "standard" security. We are now "Securing the Metal" by implementing hardware-based, end-to-end encryption across our entire Google Cloud deployment.

The Final Frontier: Confidential Computing

Traditional encryption protects your data when it's sitting in a database or moving across the network. But for the CPU to process that data, it must be decrypted. During those milliseconds in system memory (RAM), the data is vulnerable to memory scraping and sophisticated "side-channel" attacks.

Google Cloud Confidential VMs

To solve this, Leapjuice utilizes Google Cloud Confidential Computing. This technology uses hardware-based encryption keys (managed by the CPU itself) to encrypt data in RAM.

• Zero-Trust Memory: Even if a malicious actor (or a compromised hypervisor) gains access to the physical host, they cannot see your data. It remains a scrambled ciphertext throughout the entire execution cycle.
• No Performance Penalty: Thanks to AMD’s SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization) technology on our EPYC Turin nodes, this hardware-level encryption occurs with near-zero latency impact.

The Leapjuice "Triple-Lock" Encryption Strategy

We implement a tiered approach to ensure that your business intelligence remains private:

1. Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK)

We don't just rely on default cloud provider keys. We use CMEKs stored in a dedicated Hardware Security Module (HSM). You maintain ultimate control over the "kill switch" for your data.

2. TLS 1.3 + mTLS (Mutual TLS)

For data-in-transit, we mandate TLS 1.3. For internal communication between our orchestration agents (like Daisy) and our application clusters, we use Mutual TLS (mTLS). This ensures that every single internal request is verified and encrypted at both ends.

3. Encrypted-at-Rest with NVMe Hardware Encryption

Our "5,000 IOPS" standard isn't just about speed. We use self-encrypting drives (SEDs) to ensure that the physical storage media itself is encrypted at the controller level, providing an additional layer of protection against physical theft or improper disposal of hardware.

Executive ROI: Compliance and Trust

For our clients in finance, healthcare, and high-tech, this level of "Securing the Metal" is not just a technical feature—it's a sales enablement tool.

• Fast-Track Audits: Having hardware-level encryption of data-in-use significantly simplifies SOC2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance audits.
• Customer Trust: When you can tell your clients that their data is encrypted even while being processed, you differentiate yourself in a market that is increasingly wary of "black box" cloud providers.

Conclusion: Security as a Bedrock

At Leapjuice, we don't treat security as an "add-on" or a "plugin." It is baked into the very silicon we run on. By securing the metal, we ensure that the future of AI orchestration is as private as it is powerful.

Want to see our security architecture in action? Download our 'Confidential Computing Technical Whitepaper' from the Knowledge Hub.