There exist promising investment opportunities in the future: The participation of the top four cloud providers in the realm of Web3.
The security of blockchain relies on the consensus verification of nodes, which requires substantial computational power. With the rapid growth of the blockchain industry, cloud computing providers have entered this field to explore new business opportunities. The convenience offered by cloud computing has made it the preferred choice for many blockchain applications.
According to statistics, the top four global cloud service providers are AWS (Amazon), Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba Cloud, dominating nearly 70% of the global cloud infrastructure service market. Huawei Cloud and Tencent Cloud rank fifth and sixth, but they have a relatively small market share.
To help users better understand the integration trend of blockchain and cloud computing, this article outlines the collaborative applications between the top four providers and staking service nodes in blockchain networks, hoping to provide more meaningful references and inspirations.
The realm of AWS cloud takes pride in hosting a quarter of the global Ethereum network workloads.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is the world’s largest cloud service provider and holds a significant share in blockchain-related services as well. According to its official website, Amazon is the most widely used cloud provider in the blockchain industry.Approximately 25% of all Ethereum workloads globally run on AWS (Amazon Web Services). AWS offers over 70 validated blockchain solutions from various partners, supporting major blockchain protocols including Hyperledger Sawtooth, Corda, DAML, Ethereum, Quorum, Blockstack, Blockapps Strato, RSK, Kadena ScalableBFT, and more.
According to the report from Cointelegraph, the three major cloud providers account for 69% of the hosted nodes on the Ethereum mainnet, with over 50% coming from Amazon Web Services (AWS), over 15% from Hetzner, and 4.1% from OVH.Indeed, the dominance of AWS in the cloud computing industry, particularly in hosting Ethereum nodes, highlights its extensive coverage and market share. However, this concentration of power also raises concerns about centralization and the potential for a single point of failure for Ethereum.
In addition to holding a significant share in Ethereum staking, AWS has a close partnership with Avalanche. In January of this year, AWS announced its support for Avalanche’s infrastructure and dApp ecosystem through the AWS Marketplace, including one-click node deployment.The collaboration between AWS and Avalanche indeed makes it easier for more people to launch and manage nodes on the Avalanche network, providing developers with increased network advantages and flexibility.
Indeed, Ava Labs has plans to add subnet deployment as a managed service to the AWS Marketplace. This will enable individuals and organizations to launch custom subnets with just a few clicks.This feature aims to include a functionality for distributing validator nodes across different regions and availability zones to enhance robustness for subnet protection. Regarding this, Ava Labs’ founder and CEO, Emin Gün Sirer, stated:
“For individual and enterprise developers, having the ability to dynamically launch nodes and test networks on AWS within any legal jurisdiction that is most meaningful to them is a tremendous boon. I’m proud that we have implemented a protocol capable of accommodating millions of participants and is nearly instantaneous in its finality. Our collaboration with Amazon can accelerate the positive impact of Avalanche.”
In September of this year, the Web3 bandwidth trading marketplace Meson Network announced a partnership with Amazon AWS, aiming to simplify the process of deploying Meson nodes for companies and developers.
Overall, there is relatively limited news about direct collaborations between AWS and blockchain networks. However, due to its extensive coverage and dominance in traditional fields, AWS has a strong potential for application in the web3 staking domain as well.
Google Cloud has engaged in multiple collaborations with well-known public blockchain projects such as Solana and Aptos
As the pioneer of the “cloud computing” concept, Google Cloud has faced challenges in its development. It not only lags behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure in terms of market share but has also seen the gap widen in recent years.Google Cloud has chosen to embrace the emerging blockchain industry and has dedicated a specific section on its official website for Web3. This section showcases numerous partners that Google Cloud collaborates with in this field.
According to news records, Google Cloud indeed has a significant presence in the web3 industry and has actively participated in the validation of multiple blockchain networks. As a notable example, Google Cloud is serving as a launch partner for the Aptos mainnet and is actively involved in the validation process by running block-producing nodes and participating in the Aptos network.In November of last year, Google Cloud announced its participation as a validator for Solana. Additionally, Google Cloud has been observed as a validator node on numerous blockchain networks, including but not limited to Near, Flow, Chainlink, Celo, Ronin Network, Tezos, LayerZero, Zilliqa, and more. This demonstrates Google Cloud’s active deployment of validator nodes across multiple blockchain networks.After such news announcements, the token prices of the corresponding networks often experience an upward trend. This reflects the market’s optimism about cloud computing providers joining staking, as it enhances the flexibility, resilience, and data availability of their blockchain networks through the open, secure, scalable, and energy-efficient infrastructure and services provided by cloud computing.
Microsoft Azure: Enthusiastically Collaborating with Blockchain Technology Institutions to Engage in Node Staking Services
Microsoft has specifically launched a cloud service platform called Azure for its cloud services. Azure cloud platform encompasses over 200 products and cloud services, aiming to turn new solutions into reality to address present challenges and shape the future.Compared to directly deploying validator nodes, Microsoft prefers to collaborate with blockchain institutions to offer node staking services. They make these services available to users through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, allowing users to easily access and experience them.
In February of this year, Microsoft announced a partnership with Web3 infrastructure provider Ankr. The two companies decided to collaborate on developing blockchain node hosting services on the Azure Marketplace. These services aim to provide tailored memory and bandwidth specifications for blockchain nodes.Following integration and testing, the service has been officially launched, providing millions of Azure users with easy access to blockchain infrastructure gateways. According to Daniel An, the Director of Web3 and AI Business Development at Microsoft, through this partnership, Microsoft has streamlined the barriers that hinder seamless testing, deployment, and scaling of Web3 projects. They aim to assist enterprise customers and developers in meeting their evolving infrastructure and tooling needs in the Web3 space.
In July of this year, the collaboration between Microsoft and Ankr made new progress, with the latest introduction of dedicated zkSync Era nodes and the Hyperchain blockchain solution on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.This collaboration integrates various technologies, combining Ankr’s professional solutions, the scalable zkSync Era blockchain network, and Microsoft Azure’s cloud infrastructure. It aims to assist global enterprises and Web3 projects in conveniently accessing zkSync Era on Azure or developing applications on zkSync Era.
In addition to Ankr, Microsoft also established partnerships with two other blockchain companies, QuickNode and Axelar, in July of this year. QuickNode offers its professional blockchain accessibility infrastructure on the Azure App Store, enabling customers to easily deploy and manage enterprise RPC nodes. This collaboration provides users with enhanced capabilities for blockchain deployment and management through QuickNode’s services integrated into the Azure platform.The collaboration with Axelar primarily focuses on providing blockchain interoperability solutions and aims to assist Web3 and enterprise developers in accessing the blockchain world more easily.
In August of this year, Microsoft collaborated with Aptos Labs to develop a new AI blockchain solution. Aptos also announced that they would be running validator nodes on Microsoft Azure to enhance the security of their network.
Alibaba Cloud: Focusing on Supporting Avalanche and Near Public Blockchains, Anchoring the Asia-Pacific Market
In November of last year, Alibaba Cloud added support for Avalanche validator nodes and infrastructure. Users can utilize Alibaba Cloud services to establish validator nodes and leverage Alibaba Cloud’s storage and content delivery network to cater to users in the Asia-Pacific.
On June 26th of this year, according to CoinDesk, the NEAR Foundation announced a partnership with Alibaba Cloud to accelerate the development of Web3 in Asia. This collaboration enables the NEAR Foundation to access Alibaba Cloud’s developer ecosystem in Asia and the Middle East, aiming to attract more developers to build on the NEAR protocol. The NEAR Foundation and Alibaba Cloud will provide RPC services for developers and users within the NEAR ecosystem.
Conclusion: The outlook is promising, but a robust disaster recovery and backup mechanism is indispensable
It is evident that major cloud providers have made relevant deployments in this field. As the blockchain industry continues to develop, the integration of blockchain with cloud computing will expand further. This will provide new growth opportunities for cloud computing and accelerate the intensity of competition in this domain.
Although cloud computing offers convenience and security, the risks associated with it should not be overlooked. AWS has experienced two major outages in recent years. In June of this year, there was a brief but widespread interruption in Amazon AWS services. During this period, blockchain games like Illuvium and the “Creator Studio” feature of the Solana ecosystem’s NFT platform, Metaplex, were affected.In December of two years ago, dYdX experienced a temporary halt in trading for several hours due to the impact of an AWS outage.
Indeed, the outage of Alibaba Cloud in December of last year had a significant impact on the crypto industry. The second-largest centralized exchange, OKEx, completely halted its operations during this period, and the outage lasted for nearly 24 hours.
It is undeniable that cloud services still carry risks, and for designers and suppliers of blockchain consensus validation, it is crucial to have appropriate disaster recovery mechanisms in place. Additionally, the concentration of staking shares among certain cloud providers poses a challenge to the decentralized nature of blockchain.
