Systems and methods that allow secure application-driven arbitrary compute in storage devices in a cloud-based computing system are provided. A computing system including a compute controller configured to: (1) provide access to host compute resources, and (2) operate in at least one of a first mode or a second mode is provided. The computing system may further include a storage controller configured to provide access to storage systems including storage components, at least one compute component, and at least one cryptographic component. In the first mode, the host compute resources may be configured to execute at least a first operation on at least a first set of data stored in at least one of the storage components. In the second mode, the at least one compute component may be configured to execute at least a second operation on at least a second set of data.