Can Corporations, Blockchain, and Cloud Coexist?

All big players on the market have announced they are developing their own blockchain solutions, which may seem odd. And it is. You would expect from big cloud companies to do everything they can to discredit the blockchain, a technology that poses a serious threat to their business model. So, why would the companies that earn billions of dollars from cloud services support the technology that could make their business obsolete?

Can Blockchain Coexist with Cloud?

Contrary to many beliefs, blockchain does not necessarily come at the price of destruction of traditional business models. The technology is surely innovative but still struggles with many challenges, especially with the storage of big data. Every record on the Blockchain needs to be stored across thousands of computers. For example, the Bitcoin Blockchain, which only stores coin transactions has currently reached over 150 GB. A Blockchain that would store data such as images or videos would fill terabytes of data on each device in a flash.

Another thing to consider is that blockchain is immutable, meaning that once you store information on it, it’s permanently there, no way to remove it. On the one hand, this is an advantage of the blockchain, as it is effective technology to prevent fraud and data tampering. But on the other, it can cause problems. For example, if you put your personal data on the blockchain, you would have to keep the keys forever in order to keep them safe, since it is not possible to delete them.

This is the reason for the existence of mixed infrastructure. For instance, if you store data on the cloud and the hash keys of the data on the blockchain you get the speed and flexibility of the cloud and the transparency and security of blockchain.

Giving People Back the Ownership of Their Valuable Data

Blockchain enables the users to get ownership of their data back from the companies. This would relieve the companies of the storing, handling and protecting user data. By providing the infrastructure the companies can help users gain more privacy, but it is still unclear would the companies be willing to go down that road, as it would come at the cost of the advertising business which heavily relies on the data gathered.

Preventing Data Breaches and Security Incidents

With regulations such as GDPR in place, heavy fines are predicted for those that fail to protect the user data or mishandle it. Blockchain could aid the security of the cloud-based storage to save billions of dollars in stolen data as well as fines.

Many corporations are working on the development of Blockchain solutions for their needs. The technology needs to mature in order to combine it with other technologies and get real business use cases. The size and scale of the businesses will greatly increase with the combination of innovative technologies.

In conclusion, it is more than possible for corporations to embrace the blockchain and combine it with the cloud and other technologies.