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Shae Biron
Jun 30, 20225 min read

How Cloud and Blockchain are Inextricably Linked


It's logical for Cloud and Blockchain to be inextricably linked due one property they have in common: both are rapidly growing with the ability to revolutionize their respective fields. While combined, they haven't achieved complete mainstream adoption just yet, we are seeing many projects start to embrace the idea of integrating blockchain into the cloud computing sector, and a future of endless possibilities is definitely on the horizon.

The integration of Blockchain and Cloud was born from the security challenges of Cloud computing, technical limitations of Blockchain and the promising opportunities of the bringing these two together.

The security challenges of Cloud computing include data availability, privacy management, and data integrity. On the corollary, the technical limitations of Blockchain include its complexity and security flaws (in the form of incomplete smart contracts). However, linking them together opens up a wide range of opportunities.


Benefits of Blockchain Technology in Cloud Computing

1. Decentralization – The movement from centralized storage servers to decentralized blockchains is a paradigm shift in cloud computing. This leap is promising in its ability to enhance the current service offerings radically and revolutionize business. With the help of blockchain’s decentralization nature, IoT devices do not need to check in with a centralized server to control data and decisions. Decentralized cloud platforms could offer the possibility of adopting and implementing cloud tools from different vendors in a modular fashion, enabling their cloud-based programs to run based on the best available toolkits.

2. Improved Data Security – Centralized services will forever be at risk of malicious attacks and network congestion that target a single point of vulnerability, which can result in a system-wide failure. A decentralized environment can provide additional security layers and offer excess protection with backup service providers. In addition, service providers on a decentralized platform could take advantage of each other’s services shared on the same network. Blockchains related to transactions are a safe way to help keep the transaction data and the regulation of the transactions. In addition, robust P2P distribution of identical copies of the blockchain over a cloud computing network adds an additional layer of security.

3. Feasible Micro-transactions – The ability to process smaller transactional amounts increases as cloud computing technology costs decrease. Therefore, Reward payments to blockchain nodes can be negligible as long as the transaction processing costs are less than the reward. Cloud computing is moving away from the necessity to run an entire virtual server to process applications. Instead, advanced cloud computing virtual servers only need to replicate the operating system for its primary functions to support application processing. As a result, it decreases cloud computing processing costs. Hence, it makes micro-transactions more attainable.


4. Disaster Recovery – A record of all the transactions is distributed widely with blockchain technology. It is so effective as it is made public or distributed to many authorized users. Therefore, any failure of a single network node does not influence the remaining copies of the blockchain. It won’t be a concern if any single node is down as all the other nodes continue operating and updating the blockchain. Any network node that undergoes a failure can quickly catch up to the prevailing blockchain database based on the transactional record of the blockchain entries, particularly if they have a secure timestamp.


5. Increased Network Resilience – There is an option to maintain data in various physical locations if you deploy cloud computing solutions globally. When the cloud computing network has ample cloud storage in multiple locations or continents, a hurdle such as a natural disaster or calamity is less likely to interrupt the services. The processing load is then shifted to another fully operating network node on the system. Since blockchain technology is naturally a distributed data system by design, it’s a powerful tool to broaden geographical diversity for increased network resilience when combined with cloud networks.


6. Effective Ownership Tracking – Ownership tracking such as stocks, real estate, and other legal entities can be effectively tracked by combining blockchain technology with cloud computing.

7. Scalability – On large scale blockchain applications, the number of transactions in blockchain networks can be huge. So, it is very important to have powerful data processing services to have high transaction execution for enabling scalable blockchain services. In this field, the cloud can give on-demand computing resources for blockchain operations due to its scalability capabilities. So, the combination of cloud computing and blockchain can provide a highly scalable integrated system.

8. Fault Tolerance – Cloud can help replicate blockchain data across a network of computing servers that are interconnected with each other robustly by collaborative clouds. This will minimize the single-failure risks because of the disruption of any cloud node so they enable uninterrupted services.


Areas That Could Benefit From the Integration of Blockchain and Cloud Computing

  • Supply Chain — Supply chains generate and request a wealth of data to ensure effective operations at every transportation step. Using blockchain in logistics management, you can boost your revenue and prevent fraud due to real-time visibility and control. Additionally, blockchain helps improved interoperability, makes data transparent, and provides real-time product tracking.

  • Healthcare — Unfortunately today, many healthcare establishments currently entrust their sensitive information (credit card data, patients’ data, testing records, etc.) to centralized systems, making them vulnerable to attacks that lead to data leakage and security issues. By using blockchain technology to create a decentralized log of patient data and protect the information through encryption, this industry can mitigate security concerns.

  • Real Estate — Real estate buying and selling is still a complicated and arduous process, involving a great deal of paperwork and multiple intermediaries. Consequently, this industry is susceptible to fraud and property search difficulties, among other challenges. However, blockchain empowered real estate platforms can efficiently solve some of these major real estate transaction problems. It can help improve purchase/selling due diligence, reduce the need for agents, and lower the entrance for real estate investing. Moreover, using smart contracts enables secure, smooth, and immutable transaction processes.

  • Banking — Today, we continue to see still challenges with international payments. With so many verification steps required and so much time dedicated to the process, it’s quite a cumbersome procedure. However, DLT can accelerate the payment process to occur instantly after the transaction is recorded, while guaranteeing high security of the transaction.


This game-changing development of integrating Blockchain with Cloud could mean big things for both industries and could be one of the most significant drivers of the age of Cloud computing. The advent of BaaS (Blockchain-as-a-Service) will contribute greatly to the development of more complicated apps and will prove to be a win-win approach for all parties involved because Cloud services can leverage the security, transparency, interoperability, and speed of DLT.


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