All of our operations, processes, and procedures have been fully migrated to the cloud at this point. Everything from streaming videos on Netflix to sending emails is now based on the cloud. There are many different cloud service providers, but the most popular ones are Salesforce, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and many others. Microsoft's Windows 365, which facilitates the creation of a cloud-based virtual machine, is just one example of the revolutionary efforts being taken today to ensure the continued success of cloud computing in the future.
At a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5% from 2020 to 2025, the worldwide cloud computing industry is expected to reach USD 832.1 billion. Another cutting-edge technology that is gaining widespread acceptance among businesses is blockchain. To what extent are you familiar with the synergies between these two technologies? Is the integration of blockchain technology into cloud computing opening up new avenues for innovation and reshaping existing ones?
The primary advantage of incorporating blockchain into cloud computing is boosting data security. You get the best of both worlds with cloud computing as well as blockchain technology.
Challenges:
There is no doubt that cloud computing offers numerous advantages. In spite of this, it does have some obstacles to overcome. Because of the wide variety of sensitive information stored in the cloud, data security is paramount. In 2017, Amazon web services was the target of a security breach that exposed the personal information of almost 200 million US voters.
Even Alibaba's shopping website Taobao, which has over 1.1 billion users, was compromised in a cloud hack that exposed their personal information. After an invasion, Marriott's division and Starwood's data too fell apart, and the hotel chain had to deal with the resulting brand damage. Data security breaches, as a result, can have far-reaching consequences for businesses, including financial losses, damaged reputations, and the like. Blockchain's security upgrade comes as a welcome bonus to the other improvements in cloud data security.
In cloud computing, data is stored in a central location and made accessible through a network of computers and servers. Privacy, authorization, as well as security, are generally sacrificed in these centralised architectures. There is a lack of confidence in cloud computing since data kept there can be used by anybody, including malicious software and hackers. This can result in the leakage of highly sensitive information.
Introduction of Blockchain in the Cloud Computing:
There are many benefits to using blockchain applications both on their own and in conjunction with other techniques.
- When security and privacy, the two biggest concerns with cloud computing, are addressed with blockchain technology, cloud computing becomes much more attractive. In 2021, 64% of respondents cited data loss/leakage as their primary cloud security worry, as reported by Statista. The encryption of data is what gives blockchain its security and what makes its databases so protected.
- Also, 44% of those surveyed by Statista saw visibility/transparency as a serious risk to cloud security. With the use of blockchain technology, we can build a distributed and decentralised trust architecture that promotes openness. Blockchain technology makes all transactions completely transparent and removes data obstruction. Once information is entered onto the blockchain, it is immutable.
- No matter how many times one computer in a blockchain network deletes or mishandles data, it will never influence the data on any other device in the network, ensuring data integrity and preventing forgery.
- The information recorded in a blockchain cannot be removed or altered in any way. Where it's being used, when it's being used, and by whom can all be easily tracked with this method. As a record of past actions, this audit trail can be used to verify the legitimacy of a system or verify the authenticity of a user.
- Since cloud computing relies on external services, businesses risk losing significant amounts of data in the event of a service provider failure.
Industries as diverse as healthcare, agriculture, banking, and finance are all benefiting from the revolutionary changes brought about by blockchain technology. To help you get started on the path toward building an accurate blockchain solution, we've compiled a comprehensive overview of the blockchain landscape in the form of a report that covers a wide range of topics, from the inner workings of the technology to its effects on various sectors to the regulations governing it around the world to the state of the market.
What future does Blockchain hold in the field of Cloud Computing?
The cloud has become so essential to modern business that companies can't afford to ignore the inherent dangers it presents. It's important to remember that the cloud's security, compliance, and centralised structure can all be serious threats to any given enterprise. In addition, businesses rushed to adopt cloud computing providers as well as cloud solutions in response to the covid-19 pandemic, without first ensuring that they met all relevant legal and compliance standards.
Blockchain is improving the security, speed, and dependability of data storage, financial transactions, and corporate procedures. In order to improve authorisation, privacy, and efficiency, merging blockchain and cloud is the way to go. Blockchain technology has many potential benefits, but it still has several issues that must be resolved in the future, such as the necessity for data storage on each node and increased blockchain security. Data is essential to modern business operations and decision making, thus understanding how to best exploit these two areas of study can help companies protect their most valuable asset.
