Azure Confidential Computing will keep data secret, even from Microsoft

Enlarge / The Trusted Execution Environment means that, even if the application and operating system are compromised, the green code and data can’t be accessed. (credit: Microsoft ) Microsoft announced today a new feature coming to its Azure cloud platform named “Confidential Compute.” The feature will allow applications running on Azure to keep data encrypted not only when it’s at rest (in storage) or in transit (over a network) but when it’s being computed on in-memory. This ability to encrypt data when it’s in-use means that it can be kept secure even from Microsoft’s administrators, government warrants, and hackers. Confidential Computing will have two modes: one is built on virtual machines, while the other uses the SGX (“Software Guard Extensions”) feature found in Intel’s recently introduced Skylake-SP Xeon processors. Both modes will allow applications to ringfence certain parts of their code and data so that they operate in a “trusted execution environment” (TEE). Code and data that are inside a TEE cannot be inspected from outside the TEE. The virtual machine mode uses the Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) functionality of Hyper-V that was introduced in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. With VSM, most parts of an application will run in a regular virtual machine atop a regular operating system. The protected, TEE parts will run in a separate virtual machine containing only a basic stub operating system (enough that it can communicate with the regular VM) and only those parts of the application code that need to handle the sensitive data. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Azure Confidential Computing will keep data secret, even from Microsoft

First insider build of Windows Server arrives with new virtualization features

Enlarge / Server administrator kaiju hates user password reset requests. (credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment America (CC) ) Back in May , Microsoft announced that Windows Server would be joining the Windows Insider Program. Late last night, the first preview release of Windows Server was published. The biggest areas of improvement in the new build are around virtualization and containers. The preview allows exposing more of the underlying hardware capabilities to virtual machines, with support for virtualized non-volatile memory and virtualized power/battery status. For both containers and virtual machines, networking capabilities have been enhanced to enable a wider range of virtual network capabilities with greater performance. The focus on containerization has also seen the Nano Server deployment of Windows Server change. Presently, Nano Server is still a full operating system, but with the Redstone 3 release of Windows later this year, that’s going to change. It’s going to be a strictly container-only deployment. Upgrading and maintaining Nano Server will be done through updating the container image. This has enabled Microsoft to strip down the Nano Server installation. It no longer requires, for example, the Windows servicing stack. Because it’s upgraded simply by replacing the image, Nano Server no longer needs to use Windows Update itself. The result is a 70 percent reduction in the image’s footprint. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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First insider build of Windows Server arrives with new virtualization features

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program

(credit: Microsoft) SEATTLE—When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at last year’s Build developer conference , it said that it was doing so to make developers who were familiar with the Linux command line feel comfortable on Windows . The immediate and inevitable question was “Well, what about Windows Server?” Development is one thing, but what if organizations wanted to occasionally deploy their Linux software on Windows? Although Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 share many components, the Server operating system hasn’t thus far included WSL, consistent with the “developer only” rationale. But that’s going to change: at Build this week, Microsoft announced that WSL will be included in Server later this year. Microsoft still isn’t positioning this as a way of running Linux server in production on Windows; rather, the company says the addition will be useful for administrative tasks. With WSL, Windows can run scripts written for Linux. But we’re hard-pressed to see things stopping there; it seems inevitable that at some point, Windows will offer the ability to run Linux server software as one of its features. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows Server will add the Linux subsystem, join the Insider program