Miles Jamison 
- VAST DataEnclave uses NVIDIA Confidential Computing for protected AI processing
- Enterprises and model builders can retain separate control of encryption keys
- DataEnclave is scheduled for commercial release in the first quarter of 2027
VAST Data has introduced VAST DataEnclave, a confidential artificial intelligence capability that enables organizations to process sensitive information with proprietary and open AI models inside customer-controlled environments, the company said Tuesday.
Which Environments Can Use DataEnclave?
VAST said DataEnclave is intended for financial services, healthcare, government and other regulated industries where sensitive information may remain in tightly controlled environments. The capability can be deployed in customer data centers as well as connected or fully air-gapped infrastructure.
The offering is designed to let organizations use AI models without moving sensitive information to an external AI service. VAST said it also supports sovereign AI environments in which organizations and governments need to retain control over data and intellectual property within their jurisdictions.
How Are Data & Models Protected?
DataEnclave uses NVIDIA Confidential Computing to establish protected execution environments for AI workloads. Before sensitive data or model assets can be used, cryptographic attestation checks the computing environment and required security policies.
Under the arrangement, enterprises and model developers retain control of keys for their respective assets. This keeps customer-controlled data assets separate from model weights held by model developers, according to VAST.
The technology also isolates active workloads from infrastructure operators, administrators and other tenants sharing the same hardware. VAST said DataEnclave can use attestation services built on the open Cloud Native Computing Foundation Trustee stack or Fortanix’s Confidential AI infrastructure for fully sovereign deployments.
VAST Data has also worked with Leidos on AI-enabled cybersecurity applications using NVIDIA technology, extending the company’s work with the chipmaker into government security use cases.
What Other Controls Does DataEnclave Provide?
VAST said the capability creates an audit record of attestation events, key releases and enclave lifecycle activity. Its secure runtime also supports isolated environments for AI agents through VAST AgentEngine, with policies governing the data, systems and tools available to them. VAST has previously described AgentEngine as part of its broader work on deploying and managing AI agents for government and enterprise users.
DataEnclave is currently being previewed and is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2027 through VAST Data and participating OEM partners, including Cisco and Supermicro.
