OC3 2024 and the growth of confidential computing

The Open Confidential Computing Conference (OC3) 2024 is taking place on March 13 for its fourth edition. Let's delve into the evolution of OC3 over the years.

OC3 2021: The first event for confidential computing

Confidential computing is a groundbreaking technology that enables the always encrypted and verifiable processing of data on potentially untrusted systems. This opens up a world of use cases, such as privacy-preserving analytics, secret multi-party computation, secure cloud migration, and now, Confidential AI.

Seeing the technology’s huge potential, we launched OC3 in 2021 with the idea of creating a place to foster innovation and collaboration within the confidential-computing community. It was the first conference for expert discussions on this technology. Sponsored by Microsoft and the Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC), OC3 2021 featured presentations on pioneering projects such as Gramine (back then called Graphene), Veracruz, as well as our open-source software EGo and MarbleRun.

The evolution of OC3: Growing momentum

Since its inception, OC3 has witnessed exponential growth: In 2022, we hosted a keynote by Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure. In 2023, we featured a keynote by Intel CTO Greg Lavender, and an awesome CTO panel with top executives from AMD, Intel, Microsoft Azure, and NVIDIA. In total, we had 37 speakers and 1227 registrants from all over the world.

Confidential computing is gaining traction with large-scale deployments, especially in the finance and healthcare sectors. Moreover, the Confidential Computing Consortium is steadily expanding, currently comprising 45 members, among them industry giants like Intel, Microsoft, Meta, Samsung, and its latest addition, Fujitsu.

OC3 2024: Spotlight on Confidential AI

This year, we are bringing you many exciting news:

- Google Cloud keynote: We're delighted to welcome Google as a first-time sponsor, with Google Cloud’s CISO Phil Venables delivering a keynote highlighting the synergy between confidential computing and AI.

- CTO panel discussion: For the second time at OC3, we feature a panel discussion with the CTOs of AMD, Intel, Microsoft Azure, and VP of Hyperscale and HPC of NVIDIA. Gain valuable insights into the challenges and advancements in Confidential AI, this year’s hot topic, straight from the industry's front runners.

- Technical deep dives: Delve into the nitty-gritty of confidential computing with sessions covering low-level and foundational concepts, cloud-native solutions, and attestation strategies. Learn from top-notch experts of Arm, ByteDance, Google, Red Hat, and more.

- Case studies: We will also showcase interviews with end-users of confidential computing to highlight real-world applications. For instance, you can learn how the University Clinic Freiburg leverages confidential Kubernetes to move workloads to the public cloud, how Microsoft is protecting financial data with Azure Confidential Computing (ACC), or how Hope for Justice leverages a confidential-computing platform to combat modern slavery. You can find all the abstracts here.

- Networking opportunities: Connect with fellow engineers and security experts and exchange ideas with the confidential-computing community.

OC3 is 100% virtual and free, allowing you to participate from anywhere in the world without any barriers. Don't miss out on the opportunity to expand your knowledge on this exciting technology – register now! https://www.oc3.dev/

Save the date for March 13. We look forward to seeing you there! ✌️