The increasing demand for processing power from various industries has seen the growth and evolution of computing technologies to meet this demand. Over the past few years, the tech industry has seen a number of buzzwords that have tremendously impacted the industry such as the Internet of Things, Cloud computing, big data technologies among others.
Cloud infrastructures are mainly used to run these Big Data applications. Blockchain has not yet become a buzzword, but given that it provides a solution to a question that has not been solved since the dawn of the internet (How can users get to trust various online transactions?); it will definitely become a household name. Blockchain further promises to improve cloud technology in a multiplicity of ways.
Improves the Cloud’s Quality-of-Service
Cloud resources are availed under Service Level Agreement (SLA) that provides the conditions that determines whether a computer resource is being utilized appropriately. Blockchain can effectively track resource usage allowing both the provider and the client to verify that the Service Level Agreement has been fulfilled accordingly and establish who is responsible for paying compensation fees or reporting faults.
Facilitate a move to Distributed Cloud
A Blockchain that runs in the cloud will transform it into a distributed Cloud, that will allow on-demand, low-cost and secure access to the most competitive computing resources. The smart contracts eliminate a centralized authority that determines what is true or false, and instead facilitates multiple distributed parties that deliberate on what is true or false. This consensus is stored in a ledger that can be accessed and modified by anyone with authority to do so. As such, it will transform the cloud into an immutable "ledger" that can be accessed, controlled and verified by authorized parties. Due to its distributed nature, the cloud will not have a single point of failure where digital assets or records can be tampered with, or get hacked which basically improves cloud computing security.
Expand Use of Cloud resources in various Industries
A Blockchain based Distributed Cloud will guarantee trust, security and transparency, speed up processes, and keep accurate records that can be accessed by the relevant stakeholders via cloud. This will promote the demand for cloud based services in industries such as real estate, healthcare, banking among others. Blockchain based cloud can help real estate agents and homeowners store property information in a central place, so that anyone with interest in buying and selling property can easily access it. This will cut hours of phone calls, paper pushing, prevent fraud and eliminate middlemen.
It can also help address medical data integrity and security in terms of patient information, reduction of errors and fraud and promote transparency. It can have significant impact in tracking and protecting personal healthcare information. It can also address the privacy issue of medical billing logs from a financial angle. Thus, it will not only protect clinical data, but also tell transactions costs, making it harder for healthcare institutions and insurance companies to commit fraud or make errors.
Create a new and unique market place
The new marketplace will allow users to easily find computing resources they need. It will also make it easier for small cloud providers to compete with the big Cloud providers due to ease of advertising their own computing resources. Currently, the cloud and HPC resources are too expensive and too complex for small innovative businesses to acquire. However, the cloud based blockchain promises to lower the infrastructure usage costs by allowing bidding on cloud resources that are not in use at a lower cost. This will facilitate a more aggressive and complete usage of the existing computing infrastructure at a lower cost.
Brings information/data closer to the consumer and owner
The Distributed Cloud is expected to facilitate to move the computing power closer to the data which will reduce data movement and consequently improve latency, traffic and QoS. For instance in the music industry; Blockchain promises to bring some order in this age of streaming services, by solving the problem of royalty and distribution rights and also effectively bring artists closer to their fans by facilitating ease of accessibility.
It is clear that Blockchain is a powerful technology that can bring about significant positive changes to cloud computing and consequently transform numerous industries. As a result, its benefits and applications seem limitless especially when combined with existing technologies to provide superior security, and ease of access as its major benefits.
