Cloud Solutions for Blockchain Challenges
Choosing your ideal blockchain cloud infrastructure requires careful consideration
The use of blockchain in various industries is accelerating. As new blockchain strategies emerge, the underlying technologies change. Blockchain services are now being used on top of cloud-based products and services. This is because cloud technologies address many of the pain points associated with blockchain development. In this article, we discuss the benefits of blockchain combined with cloud, such as workforce management, operational costs, and time-to-market release.
Choosing a blockchain cloud provider
Before we dig deeper into any discussion of an underlying blockchain cloud technology, it is important to recognize the differences between various cloud service providers (CSPs). They can offer very different solution sets, and not all will meet the needs of your ideal blockchain infrastructure.
Hybrid and multi-cloud options open the door to blockchain interoperability and decentralization
When it comes to developing your blockchain infrastructure, both hybrid and multi-cloud options are essential, as they open the door to blockchain interoperability and decentralization. Some CSPs are multilocal, which benefits the decentralized nature of the backend block. However, only vendors with a large portfolio of deployed solutions are likely to offer both a hybrid and multi-cloud network service.
A cloud provider’s stance on regulatory guidelines is also important. Not all providers will offer industry-specific compliance guidelines and data sovereignty regulations, such as GDPR within the EU. Some providers operate within these limits and are fully compatible. A vendor can also offer the benefits of open source solutions, which are a great asset for interoperability, reversibility and multi-cloud strategies.
However, very few cloud service providers offer cloud products without incoming and outgoing data traffic charges, and these assurances are essential as they are likely to save you money in the long run.
Cloud technology to power the blockchain industry
Cloud solutions are a logical choice when it comes to powering your blockchain technologies. There are a number of viable cloud technologies that address blockchain infrastructure requirements, including:
Bare-metal blockchain solutions
A dedicated server gives the user total flexibility to design the software layer, giving you the control you need to design and manage your machine. With cloud-based bare-metal servers, the hardware is maintained by the vendor. The solution comes with networking features such as enhanced bandwidth options for public connectivity and private vLAN connectivity, helping you meet clustering and scalability requirements.
In addition, there are built-in hardware features that are perfect for enhanced blockchain security, such as Intel Software Guard Extension (SGX) which allows dedicated servers equipped with specific CPU chipsets for confidential data processing based on hardware encryption.
Public blockchain cloud solutions
Public cloud solutions are particularly well-suited to the needs of start-up scale-up blockchain companies. The technology’s underlying bare-metal resources are shared with more than one business, on top of which the cloud service provider has built the product itself.
Public cloud solutions increase user efficiency through automation, for example: using hypervisored (via open source software) public cloud services, such as OpenStack, users (using the OpenStack CLI, Terraform or Ansible) can achieve greater VM-based automation and management.
There are also specialized orchestration tools such as Kubernetes, with fully managed master node layers and automations. This form of cloud-based infrastructure, known as Managed Kubernetes, is often used by blockchain developers because it reduces time-to-market, as well as the need for hardware maintenance. By leveraging this technology, DevOps talent can spend more time focusing on the right research and development.
Private blockchain cloud host
Hosted private cloud platforms can help address the pain point of shared resources. Unlike dedicated servers, which are Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) – hosted private clouds are more likely to be Platform as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions. These clusters are equipped with specialized hypervisor solutions, from companies such as Nutanix and VMware. They specialize in building software that manages the underlying infrastructure. These solutions include integrated, ready-to-use capabilities that offer features such as infrastructure management, monitoring, custom virtualized networking, automation, and disaster recovery and backup.
These solutions offer enhanced redundancy features, such as service uptime due to high availability. This improves fault tolerance as the product itself is designed with a minimum of two hosts. If one of the underlying nodes goes down, the overall infrastructure is still operational. In short, there is no single point of failure.
Cloud-based PaaS solutions seem to suit the blockchain industry. This is because hosted private cloud products offer a number of ready-made tools for developing private containerized environments. VMware and Nutanix offer orchestration products, such as Tanzu or the Nutanix Kubernetes engine, and these solutions are fully scalable, secure and private.
Important considerations when choosing a blockchain cloud infrastructure
The use of cloud technologies in the blockchain industry is growing exponentially. Many cloud services and products support blockchain infrastructure needs – whether bare-metal, public cloud, or hosted private cloud solutions.
Choosing your ideal blockchain infrastructure provider requires careful consideration. To make this easier, we have developed a set of criteria that will help you assess the characteristics of key suppliers:
Businesses should choose a cloud provider based on key attributes, including:
| Criteria | What should you look for? | Why is this important? |
| Enabling hybrid/multicloud strategy | Interoperable solutions enable you to connect different products and services. Including the ability to connect to solutions from other vendors, as well as any local or co-located setup | Interoperable blockchain solutions open the door to higher decentralization of blockchain networks as well as robust disaster recovery options |
| Compliance measures | A contractual commitment to broad regulations such as GDPR, as well as sector compliance that meets the requirements of specific industries | Regulation around blockchain is likely to increase. Depending on your sector, you may require industry-specific compliance certification |
| Transparency in pricing | Nothing shall be paid for incoming and outgoing traffic | Simply put, inbound and outbound traffic refers to data moving in and out of the cloud. Without a zero-cost guarantee, your monthly billing can become unpredictable |
| Transparency and reversibility | This should include carefully choosing cloud products that embrace open source values | This is critical for future migrations and multi-cloud strategies, as well as reducing business risk |
| Security, scalability | Robust security solutions and tools, such as Anti-DDoS protection should be included as standard. So should hardware encryption solutions such as Intel Software Guard Extension (SGX) and solutions built in to be scalable from the ground up | Companies working in the blockchain often deal with security threats that require robust security responses from the infrastructure layer. As they grow, blockchain technologies will rely on security for businesses to meet increasing demand |
| Service Level Agreements (SLAs). | Expect no less than a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 99.9% infrastructure uptime | The SLA gives consumers a guarantee on uptime prices. This means that the supplier must compensate a customer for any downtime that may occur beyond the SLA agreement, improving the reliability of the overall solution built for the end consumer |
In summary, blockchain and cloud technologies may well be a match made in heaven, but the combination requires careful selection and planning with your cloud provider, not to mention a strong partnership with them to stay ahead of the challenges that are sure to come your way. .
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| About the author: Omar Abi Issa is an award-winning Blockchain expert, with over 7 years of experience with corporate B2B SME customers. He specializes in helping technology companies with a strong focus in the Blockchain sector. |
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