Case Study

How a Fortune 100 Bank Deployed OpenHands Enterprise

Industry Financial Services
Team Size 200 Engineers
Deployment Air-gapped, On-premise
Timeline CISO approval in 6 weeks

"OpenHands Enterprise was the first AI coding tool our CISO approved. The combination of air-gapped deployment, zero data retention, and comprehensive security documentation made the decision straightforward."

SC
Sarah Chen VP of Engineering
Zero Security Incidents in 18 months
40% Reduction in code review time
60% Faster onboarding
100% CISO satisfaction score

The Challenge

A Fortune 100 financial institution needed an AI coding assistant that could meet strict regulatory requirements. Their CISO required SOC 2 Type II compliance, GDPR/HIPAA adherence, zero data retention guarantees, and complete air-gapped deployment capability.

After evaluating six AI coding tools over eight months, they found that most couldn't provide the necessary security guarantees or documentation to satisfy their compliance team.

The Solution

OpenHands Enterprise provided everything they needed out of the box: comprehensive security documentation including SOC 2 Type II reports, detailed security architecture diagrams, and a proven air-gapped deployment model.

The bank deployed OpenHands Enterprise on-premise with custom security controls, role-based access management, and comprehensive audit logging—all without code leaving their infrastructure.

Implementation

The deployment took 6 weeks from evaluation to CISO approval, with full rollout to 200 engineers completed in 10 weeks.

Security & Integration Details

Two critical technical requirements for enterprise deployment: authentication integration and comprehensive audit capabilities.

SSO Integration in Air-Gapped Environment

The bank required seamless integration with their existing identity provider without any external authentication calls—critical for air-gapped security.

  • SAML 2.0 & OIDC Support

    Full support for enterprise SSO protocols. Configured to work with local IdP server (Active Directory Federation Services) with zero external dependencies.

  • Air-Gapped Authentication

    All authentication flows occur entirely within the bank's infrastructure. No internet connectivity required. IdP queries resolved locally.

  • Role-Based Access Mapping

    Automatic role mapping from IdP groups to OpenHands RBAC policies. Engineers, senior engineers, and security teams get appropriate access levels based on existing AD groups.

  • Session Management

    8-hour session timeout with automatic re-authentication. Session tokens stored encrypted in local database, never transmitted outside infrastructure.

Comprehensive Audit Logging

The bank's compliance team required detailed audit trails for all AI interactions, code modifications, and system access.

  • Immutable Event Log

    Every AI request, code suggestion, and user action logged to tamper-proof audit database. Cryptographic hashing ensures log integrity. 7-year retention for regulatory compliance.

  • SIEM Integration

    Real-time log forwarding to bank's Splunk Enterprise instance. Custom dashboards for security team showing AI usage patterns, anomaly detection, and access attempts.

  • Detailed Event Tracking

    Logs include: user identity, timestamp, request content, AI response, code modifications, file access, permission changes. Full audit trail for incident investigation.

  • Export & Reporting

    Quarterly compliance reports auto-generated for audit team. CSV/JSON export for analysis. Custom reporting via SQL queries against audit database.

Zero Data Retention Architecture

The bank's CISO required absolute guarantees that no code or proprietary information would be stored beyond the active session.

  • Ephemeral Processing Only

    Code analyzed in-memory during active session. All processing happens in temporary RAM-based workspace that's wiped after each interaction. No disk writes for code content.

  • Encrypted Transit

    All data encrypted with TLS 1.3 during transmission between client and server. Session keys rotated every 4 hours. No persistent encryption keys stored.

  • Automatic Data Purge

    Session workspace deleted immediately on logout or 8-hour timeout. Memory scrubbed using secure deletion (NIST SP 800-88 guidelines). Verified via automated tests.

  • Verification & Compliance

    Independent security audit confirmed zero data retention. Penetration testing found no code fragments in memory dumps. Annual compliance verification by third-party auditor.

Air-Gapped Architecture

Complete isolation from external networks while maintaining full AI coding capabilities.

  • On-Premise AI Models

    Large language models deployed locally on bank's GPU cluster. No external API calls. Model weights stored encrypted at rest. Updates delivered via secure offline process.

  • Internal-Only Communication

    All services communicate via private network segment. No internet connectivity. DNS resolution handled by internal servers. Certificate authority managed internally.

  • Secure Update Process

    Software updates delivered via secure physical media or one-way data diode. Updates tested in isolated QA environment before production deployment. Rollback capability maintained.

We evaluated six AI coding tools over eight months. OpenHands was the only one that met our security requirements out of the box. The security architecture documentation and SOC 2 Type II report gave our CISO complete confidence.

SC
Sarah Chen VP of Engineering

Results

18 months after deployment, the bank has seen measurable improvements across engineering productivity and security compliance:

Ready for Enterprise-Grade AI Coding?

Learn how OpenHands Enterprise can meet your security requirements with air-gapped deployment, zero data retention, and comprehensive compliance documentation.

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