Amazon has unveiled a security platform aimed at improving protections for its AWS cloud computing platform.

The company said that the CloudHSM platform would allow users to purchase use of dedicated security modules which can encrypt AWS instances to prevent unauthorised access.

Under the CloudHSM plan, customers can purchase use of the hardware modules which generate and store encryption keys. The keys are then used to encode and decrypt the data stored in AWS instances. The keys themselves will only be available to the users, providing additional protections.

Amazon said that while it works to secure every AWS instances, some customers have sought out additional protections. To provide more security and to comply with certain regulations regarding data storage and security, the company said that it needs to offer the heightened protections of a service such as CloudHSM.

“Until now, organizations’ only options were to maintain data in on-premises datacentres or deploy local HSMs to protect encrypted data in the cloud,” Amazon said in announcing its new service.

“Unfortunately, those options either prevented customers from migrating their most sensitive data to the cloud or significantly slowed application performance.”

Security worries have long plagued the adoption of cloud computing services. While vendors themselves have sought to dismiss such concerns, many organisations have listed fears of data breach and unauthorised access among their chief concerns for cloud migration.