Confidential Workloads on Bare Metal with Private Cloud: Leveraging OpenStack for Security and Control

Why Private Cloud for Confidential Workloads?

Public cloud environments, while convenient and scalable, present inherent limitations for confidential workloads. When using shared infrastructure, organizations face potential risks from privileged users, malicious actors within the system, and limited control over data location and access.

Data sovereignty has become a critical compliance requirement, with regulations like GDPR emphasizing that data protection laws apply based on the location of the data subject, not the data processor. Organizations must navigate complex jurisdictional requirements where different countries impose varying restrictions on data transfer and storage.

Private cloud infrastructure addresses these challenges by providing:

• Complete infrastructure control – Physical servers dedicated exclusively to your organization
• Data sovereignty assurance – Keep sensitive data within specified geographic boundaries
• Compliance certainty – Meet strict regulatory requirements for healthcare, finance, and government
• Custom security policies – Implement organization-specific security controls and access policies

OpenStack: The Foundation for Secure Private Cloud

OpenStack is an open-source cloud computing infrastructure platform that provides common services for cloud infrastructure, controlling large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources through APIs or a dashboard. Unlike proprietary solutions, OpenStack provides complete transparency and control over your cloud environment.

For confidential workloads, OpenStack offers several key advantages as the foundational infrastructure layer:

Identity and Access Management with Keystone

OpenStack’s Keystone service manages authentication and authorization across the cloud environment, allowing businesses to implement strict access controls and enforce policies for users, services, and APIs. Keystone supports multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access control (RBAC) for granular permissions.

Network Security and Isolation with Neutron

Neutron, OpenStack’s networking component, creates secure and isolated networks through network segmentation using VLANs or VXLANs, Firewalls-as-a-Service (FWaaS) for perimeter defense, and support for software-defined networking (SDN) integration.

Data Protection and Encryption

OpenStack ensures data security at rest and in transit through services like Cinder (block storage) and Swift (object storage) that support encryption to protect sensitive information. This includes data encryption at rest using volume encryption features and end-to-end encryption for secure data transfers.

Multi-tenancy for Organizational Isolation

For businesses hosting multiple teams or clients, OpenStack’s multi-tenancy feature ensures that each tenant operates in an isolated environment, preventing data leakage or unauthorized access.

The Current State of Confidential Computing Integration

While confidential computing technologies like Intel TDX and SGX represent the cutting edge of data protection, their integration with OpenStack is still evolving. Direct integration of TDX and SGX into the main OpenStack codebase is an ongoing effort, with limited upstream support currently available in official OpenStack distributions.

Some experimental and third-party projects have demonstrated how to enable SGX and TDX in OpenStack environments, but this work is not yet fully integrated into the mainstream OpenStack ecosystem. This creates both challenges and opportunities for organizations seeking to implement confidential computing.

OpenMetal’s Hybrid Approach: Best of Both Worlds

OpenMetal addresses the current limitations of confidential computing integration by offering a hybrid architecture that combines the proven security and management capabilities of OpenStack private cloud with dedicated bare metal servers that support hardware-level confidential computing.

OpenStack Private Cloud Foundation

OpenMetal provides private cloud infrastructure built on OpenStack and Ceph with full hardware and network control. Each deployment includes infrastructure-level private networking with dedicated VLANs, dual 10 Gbps private links per server, and unmetered traffic between servers.

Within OpenStack Projects, you can create Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) that include custom IP ranges, VXLAN overlays, firewall rules, and VPN-as-a-Service. These features allow workloads to operate in logically isolated environments with defined security boundaries.

Cloud deployment uses OpenMetal automation to create a production-ready OpenStack cluster in about 45 seconds. Additional servers can be added to the cluster in around 20 minutes. OpenStack services available in these clusters include Nova for compute management, Neutron for networking, Cinder for block storage, and Keystone for identity and access management.

Dedicated Bare Metal for Confidential Computing

For workloads requiring hardware-level confidential computing, OpenMetal offers select bare metal servers that support Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) and Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX). These technologies provide hardware-enforced trust domains, remote attestation, and measured boot processes designed to run sensitive applications such as healthcare data processing, financial systems, blockchain validators, and AI or machine learning jobs that require isolation and verifiable integrity.

Hardware options range from Medium V4 servers, with 24 CPU cores and 256 GB RAM total, to XXL V4 servers with 128 CPU threads total and up to 2 TB RAM. All servers include dual 10 Gbps NICs and NVMe storage.

Hybrid Architecture Benefits

This hybrid approach provides several key advantages:

Seamless Integration: The OpenStack private cloud handles orchestration, networking, and resource management, while dedicated bare metal servers provide hardware-level security for the most sensitive workloads.

Network Connectivity: Both the OpenStack private cloud and bare metal servers can be connected through the same secure network infrastructure, enabling seamless communication between different tiers of your application stack.

Unified Management: You can manage both your OpenStack resources and bare metal servers through a single interface and billing relationship, simplifying operations and cost management.

Flexible Scaling: Start with an OpenStack private cloud for general workloads and add bare metal confidential computing resources as needed for specific use cases.

Implementing a Hybrid Confidential Computing Architecture

Getting started with this hybrid approach involves several key steps:

1. Design Your Architecture

Determine which workloads require hardware-level confidential computing versus those that can run securely on the OpenStack private cloud. Typically, the most sensitive data processing operations run on bare metal with TDX/SGX, while supporting services, databases, and management tools run on the OpenStack infrastructure.

2. Deploy OpenStack Private Cloud Core

Start with an OpenMetal private cloud deployment that provides the foundation for your secure infrastructure. Configure networking, identity management, and storage services to support your application requirements.

3. Add Bare Metal Confidential Computing

Select from Medium V4, Large V4, XL V4, or XXL V4 configurations with TDX and SGX support. These servers integrate with your private cloud network while providing hardware-enforced security boundaries.

4. Configure Network Connectivity

Set up secure networking between your OpenStack private cloud and bare metal servers. Use VLANs and firewall rules to ensure proper isolation while enabling necessary communication between application tiers.

5. Implement Data Flow Security

Design your data processing pipeline so that sensitive operations occur on the bare metal servers with confidential computing, while orchestration, logging, and less sensitive processing happens on the OpenStack infrastructure.

6. Monitor and Audit

Deploy monitoring tools across both environments to track access patterns, system performance, and compliance status. Configure logging and auditing to meet regulatory requirements for your industry.

Real-World Use Cases

Healthcare Data Processing

A healthcare organization can deploy an OpenStack private cloud to handle patient management systems, electronic health records, and administrative applications while using bare metal servers with TDX for processing protected health information (PHI) during clinical research or AI model training. This ensures HIPAA compliance for the most sensitive operations while maintaining operational efficiency.

Financial Services Risk Analysis

Financial institutions can run their customer-facing applications and databases on OpenStack private cloud while performing sensitive fraud detection algorithms or trading model calculations on bare metal servers with SGX. This approach ensures data sovereignty requirements are met while maintaining the performance needed for real-time financial operations.

AI and Machine Learning Pipeline

Organizations developing proprietary AI models can use OpenStack private cloud for data preprocessing, model serving, and application hosting, while conducting sensitive model training on bare metal servers with confidential computing capabilities. This protects intellectual property during the most critical phases of model development.

Blockchain Infrastructure

Web3 and crypto organizations can deploy their application infrastructure on OpenStack while running blockchain validators and wallet services on bare metal servers with hardware-level security. This approach provides both operational flexibility and maximum security for cryptographic operations.

Cost-Effective Infrastructure Management

Predictable Pricing Model

OpenMetal’s pricing is based on fixed monthly costs per server configuration rather than usage-based metering. For egress, traffic above included allowances is billed at $375 per Gbps using 95th percentile measurement. This allows traffic bursts without immediate overage charges while keeping costs predictable across both OpenStack and bare metal resources.

Unified Billing and Management

Managing both OpenStack private cloud and bare metal resources under a single relationship simplifies procurement, budgeting, and ongoing operations. You can scale each component independently based on your specific requirements without managing multiple vendors or contracts.

Enterprise-Grade Network and Security Features

Public networking includes dual 10 Gbps uplinks per server, DDoS protection up to 10 Gbps per IP, and support for customer-owned IP space. This gives you control over routing and addressing for workloads that must meet compliance or sovereignty requirements.

When implementing confidential workloads, following established security practices is crucial for maintaining a secure environment. This includes implementing strong authentication mechanisms, comprehensive monitoring, network segmentation, and regular security updates across both OpenStack and bare metal components.

The Future of Confidential Computing Integration

The confidential computing landscape continues to evolve rapidly. According to industry research, the global confidential computing market is projected to reach over $1.2 trillion by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 60%¹. This explosive growth reflects the increasing importance of protecting data in use across all industries.

As OpenStack’s confidential computing integration matures, organizations that start with this hybrid approach will be well-positioned to take advantage of native integration as it becomes available. The foundation of secure private cloud infrastructure combined with hardware-level confidential computing provides a forward-looking architecture that can evolve with the technology.

Regulatory frameworks are also evolving to address data-in-use protection. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework now includes specific guidance for protecting data during processing, while European regulations like DORA mandate data-in-use protection for financial institutions.

Getting Started with OpenMetal

OpenMetal provides the infrastructure, expertise, and support needed to implement this hybrid confidential computing architecture successfully. With both OpenStack private cloud capabilities and bare metal servers featuring hardware-level security, you can build an environment that meets your most demanding security and compliance requirements while maintaining operational flexibility.

Whether you’re processing healthcare data, running financial algorithms, training AI models, or validating blockchain transactions, OpenMetal’s hybrid approach gives you the control and security that confidential workloads demand without forcing you to choose between cloud flexibility and hardware-level security.

Ready to explore how this hybrid architecture can transform your organization’s approach to sensitive data processing? Contact our team to discuss your specific requirements and learn how OpenMetal can support your confidential computing initiatives.

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