Potential of Homomorphic Encryption for Cloud Computing Use Cases in Manufacturing

Homomorphic encryption enables secure cloud computing over the complete data lifecycle. As so-called in-use encryption methodology, it allows using encrypted data for, e.g., data analysis—in contrast to classic encryption methods. In-use encryption enables new ways of value creation and an extensive use of cloud computing for manufacturing companies. However, homomorphic encryption is not widely implemented in practice yet. This is mainly since homomorphic encryption has higher computation times and is limited regarding its calculation operations. Nevertheless, for some use cases, the security requirements are a lot stricter than, e.g., timeliness requirements. Thus, homomorphic encryption might be beneficial. This paper, therefore, analyzes the potential of homomorphic encryption for cloud computing in manufacturing. First, the potential and limitations for both classic and homomorphic encryption are presented on the basis of a literature review. Second, to validate the limitations, simulations are executed, comparing the computation time and data transfer of classic and homomorphic encryption. The results show that homomorphic encryption is a tradeoff of security, time, and cost, which highly depends on the use case. Therefore, third, manufacturing use cases are identified; the two use cases of predictive maintenance and contract manufacturing are presented in detail, demonstrating how homomorphic encryption can be beneficial.