Bring Your Own Encryption BYOE

Bring Your Own Encryption (BYOE)—also called Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)— refers to a cloud computing security model to help cloud service customers to use their ownencryption software and manage their own encryption keys.BYOE allows cloud service customers to use a virtualized example of their own encryption software together with the business applications they are hosting in the cloud, in order to encrypt their data. The business applications hosted is then set up such that all its data will be processed by the encryption software, which then writes the ciphertext version of the data to the cloud service provider's physical data store. This gives the enterprise the ultimate control to its own keys and producing its own master key by relying on its own internal Hardware Security Modules (HSM) that is then transmitted to the HSM within the cloud. Data is secured because the master key lies in the enterprise's HSM and not that of the cloud service provider's.
“Google Compute Engine already protects all customer data with industry-standard AES-256 bit encryption,”” explained Leonard Law, a Google researcher, in a post. “Customer-supplied encryption Keys marries the hardened encryption framework built into Google’s infrastructure with encryption keys that are owned and controlled exclusively by you….Google does not retain your keys, and only holds them transiently in order to fulfill your request.”
Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys for Google Compute Engine in beta, which allow you to bring-your-own-keys to encrypt compute resources. Google Compute Engine already protects all customer data with industry-standard AES-256 bit encryption. Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys marries the hardened encryption framework built into Google’s infrastructure with encryption keys that are owned and controlled exclusively by you. You create and hold the keys, you determine when data is active or at rest, and absolutely no one inside or outside Google can access your at rest data without possession of your keys. Google does not retain your keys, and only holds them transiently in order to fulfill your request.
Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys are now available in beta in select countries. Starting today, you can access Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys through our API, our Developers Console, and our command-line interface, gcloud. This new functionality is currently rolling out to the Free Trial and will be available soon.
Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys provides you unprecedented control over encryption in the public cloud:

• Secure: All of your compute assets are encrypted using the industry-leading AES-256 standard, and Google never retains your keys, meaning Google cannot decrypt your data at rest.
• Comprehensive: Unlike many solutions, Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys cover all forms of data at rest for Compute Engine, including boot and data persistent disks.
• Fast: Google Compute Engine is already encrypting all of your data at rest, and Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys gives you greater control, without additional overhead.
• Included Free: We feel that encryption should be enabled by default for cloud services; we’re not going to charge you more for the option to bring your own keys.

"Google Compute Engine gives us the performance and scale to process high-volume transactions in the financial markets. With Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys, we can independently control data encryption for our clients without incurring additional expenses from integrating third-party encryption providers. This control is critical for us to realize the price/performance benefits of the cloud in a highly regulated industry."  Neil Palmer, CTO of Sungard Consulting Services
Security is as much about control as it is about data protection. With Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys, we are giving you control over how your data is encrypted with Google Compute Engine. Keep in mind, though, if you lose your encryption keys, we won’t be able to help you recover your keys or your data - with great power comes great responsibility!
Retain control while taking advantage of the cloud.