Method and apparatus for managing data in a data storage device configured as a storage compute appliance. In some embodiments, the data storage device has a non-volatile memory (NVM) and a controller circuit. The NVM stores a plurality of data sets encrypted by at least one encryption key. The controller circuit performs a storage compute appliance process by locally decrypting the plurality of data sets in a local memory of the data storage device, generating summary results data from the decrypted data sets, and transferring the summary results data across the host interface to an authorized user without a corresponding transfer of any portion of the decrypted data sets across the host interface.