Researchers from Microsoft have developed a new way to securely store applications and data in the cloud by isolating them from the underlying infrastructure and putting them in memory.

The method, which the tech company has dubbed "Haven," could help consumers feel safer using the firm's cloud services for mission-essential applications and data, said the researchers.

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A paper on the subject will be presented by Microsoft researchers Andrew Baumann, Galen Hunt and Marcus Peinado at the USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation in Broomfield, Colo., held on Oct. 6 to 8.

The team used "shielded execution," which safeguards the associated data and programs from the platform they are running on, such as the cloud provider's administrative software, firmware, operating system and other software that supports the program.

Haven offers extra protection which runs on commodity operating systems and  works with any legacy application, which are not provided by the current methods.

"The single most common barrier to adopting cloud computing is the lack of trust in the cloud provider's ability to provide the same level of confidentiality and integrity as one could with an on-premise solution," wrote the chief information security officer for security research firm Qualys, Jonathan Trull, in an email exchange about Haven.

Haven is dependent on two new technologies.

One of the technologies is an experimental virtual container by Microsoft called Drawbridge that can provide safe sandboxing of applications. The other is Intel's Software Guard Extensions, a set of central processing unit commands for setting aside private areas in memory.

Security professionals said that utilizing the processor as a piece of the security setup is a step in the right direction. The technique is also used by IBM to lure security-savvy consumers for Softlayer, the company's cloud service.

TagsMicrosoft Haven, Cloud storage, Cloud computing services, Cloud computing, Haven, internet security