Search engine giant Google today unveiled its new Titan computer security chip, which the company claims has been created to integrate state-of-the-art security features with its public cloud platform. Technical specifications of the Titan security chipset are to be disclosed this week, with Google hoping its new upgrade will give its cloud computing ambitions a considerable edge over its main market competitors, Amazon and Microsoft.
A Titan chip is roughly the same size as a stud earring and has thus far been deployed in most of Google’s cloud data centers. Furthermore, the company has also reportedly used the chips to protect the servers that run applications like Gmail and YouTube.
According to Google, Titan has been designed to enhance network security by continuously scanning the hardware into which the chipset is installed, ensuring that it has not been compromised. If Titan does discover evidence of a server or networking gear breach, the hardware in question is promptly shut down and will be prevented from auto-booting, thus isolating and containing any potential attack.
While announcing the new Titan security chip, Head of Infrastructure Product Marketing for Google, Neal Mueller, mentioned:
Titan scans hardware to ensure it has not been tampered with. If anything has been changed, Titan chip will prevent the machine from booting. It allows us to maintain a level of understanding in our supply chain that we otherwise wouldn’t have.
With the company holding a mere 7% of the current public cloud computing market, Google believes its Titan security chip is a key part of its strategy to attract more business, particularly in the face of ever-stringent data privacy and compliance laws.