Around the country, IT and cybersecurity providers are frantically informing their teams and clients that Russian state-sponsored hackers have set their sights on bringing down corporate America’s IT and cybersecurity infrastructures.
OK, that’s not news. The Russians have been coming for our computers, cloud servers, social media accounts, and elections for years now…but I guess they’re ramping it up now to never-before-seen levels, which is probably concerning for many of you.
Well, worry not. The universe of possibilities for blockchain as a hacker-vanquishing cybersecurity protocol is open for business. By now you’ve likely heard how cryptocurrencies have disrupted finance. Blockchain-secured cloud storage is the next frontier for this exciting new tech.
In their last quarterly earnings call on Feb. 3, 2022, Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai publicly acknowledged the potential of blockchain technology for the first time.
The Russians may be coming for corporate America’s IT infrastructure, but blockchain-secured cloud storage from IOS will keep your data safe!
“Such an interesting and powerful technology with broad applications…so much broader than any one application. As a company, we’re looking at how we might contribute to the ecosystem and add value,” said Picchai. “Anytime there is innovation, I find it exciting, and I think it is something we want to support the best we can. The purpose always evolves, and it’s going to continue to evolve.”
Translation: I can’t wait to make so much money doing this very cool new thing!
Imaging Office Systems (IOS) is among the first in the world to offer this type of cloud service to its customers.
IOS Blockchain-Secured Cloud Storage: The Basics
- IOS blockchain-secured cloud storage is decentralized, which means data is split up among a collection of “nodes” on a network of trusted cloud hosts. Only the data owner has a unique encryption key that allows access to the data.
- An incentive-based ecosystem/economy known as tokenomics allows for the creation of a “grid” of data storage provider nodes, the owners of which get paid for allocating cloud storage resources.
- Uses AES-256 authenticated encryption.
- Employs smart replication and self-healing synchronization, which eliminates the possibility of a single point of failure; if any single or group of cloud servers go down, your data—and access to it—will remain unaffected.
- Utilizes efficient parallelism to increase transfer rates, processing capabilities, and overall throughput even during peak hours.
- Engages in continuous optimization of retrieval and response times and automatically shifts your data to minimize latency.
Consensus Protocol: Cybersecurity Game Changer
A cryptographic fingerprint unique to each block enables IOS blockchain-secured cloud storage to be theoretically tamperproof. This is the essence of “consensus protocol,” the process by which nodes on a cloud network agree on a shared history.
The fingerprint—called a hash—takes a lot of computing time and energy to generate initially. It serves as proof that the miner who added the block to the blockchain did the computational work to earn a reward. It also serves as a kind of seal, since altering the block would require generating a new hash. Nodes are programmed to verify if a hash matches its block. Once the nodes have done so, they update their respective copies of the blockchain with the new block. This process is known as consensus protocol, and it’s a game-changing innovation in cybersecurity.
Decentralized: More Reliable Than Centralized
One of the biggest complaints today’s business cloud storage users make is about those dreaded slowdowns due to network traffic overloads. Blockchain-secured cloud storage from IOS solves this issue by balancing server loads across different nodes—a key feature of distributed decentralization. This allows for faster data retrieval, enhances cybersecurity, and eliminates the possibility of data loss, even if multiple machines fail at once.
Traditional Cloud Storage vs. Blockchain-Secured Cloud Storage
According to the IDC report, “Global Enterprise Infrastructure Quarterly Tracker: Buyer and Cloud Deployment,” the global market for cloud storage is expected to eclipse $100 billion by 2025.
While traditional, centralized cloud storage may comprise much of that growth, there are significant drawbacks to legacy cloud technology: server failures, centralized operational control, and frequent breaches of data security. These issues have triggered many to seek out better, more reliable cloud storage options.
Decentralized storage nodes are infinitely scalable, and according to their resources, every node can smoothly adjust storage capacity and quality.
The Future: Web3
Web3 is technologies and applications in the fields of decentralized web software protocols.
Investors are currently flooding money into companies working on ideas to develop what many call Web3, a new vision for the internet as a place where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies rule the day…and where the importance and impact of “digital ownership” becomes a greater part of everyday life.
These new crypto-economies will require data storage that is just as secure as cryptocurrencies and digital assets like NFTs. This is the future of blockchain-secured cloud storage: super-secure, integrated data storage for cloud-native applications and data infrastructure for decentralized web3 crypto-economies.
Contact IOS to learn more about how blockchain-secured, decentralized cloud storage can enhance your cybersecurity posture and give your business a competitive edge that will position you for greater success in the future.