This post covers research and key insights into how new decentralized computing platforms are disrupting traditional cloud computing providers with better security, pricing, and transparency. In order to fully understand the topic, we’ve recorded a webinar with notes & broken the whole topic into different parts such as :
- Why the decentralized cloud computing space matters?
- What makes up the sector & what the end-users and markets care about?
- How is decentralization addressing these market needs?
- What is disruptive about the decentralization thesis, market sizing and sector ranking, and analysis of the top players on the blockchain.
- Finally, in conclusion, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that face the sector over the coming years.
There are projects & platforms, which are evolving to cater to the need for decentralized computation. Some of the platforms are Ethereum, NEO, EOS, QTUM, and LISK.
We’re only focused on post-ICO companies, and therefore these companies are actively trading and being used on the blockchain.
Why pay attention to the decentralized cloud computing space?
The cloud computing market is absolutely massive because instead of using on-premise and pre-provisioned resources for computer, storage, and networking, you can use third-party servers from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM. In 60 or so years of the IT industry, cloud computing would be the third compute model.
The first being centralized mainframes, and the second being client-server PCs. A third compute model is a pretty big deal. Overall, all other major technologies like smartphones, the Internet of Things, analytics, and AI rely on their connections to cloud-based data. Cloud computing is a pretty big deal.
For all of its plus points, cloud computing has one or more disadvantages. There’s a single point of failure when the provider goes offline. The ability to censor or mask content and no real economic incentive to reduce prices.
Though the cloud computing market is competitive, just three companies, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft control over 90% of the market. In the decentralized version, computing platforms enable marketplaces that allow server owners to rent out their idle compute capacity. It remains to be seen if Decentralized Cloud Computing can disrupt the incumbents.
What end-users of cloud computing care about?
At Covalent, we’ve assessed the market needs according to 5 key factors, Cost, Elasticity, Uptime, Data Security and Standards compliance.
1st: Managing costs is an important concern as software infrastructure costs today are quite considerable. Costs saved by adopting innovative technologies can be reinvested in the business for transformative purposes.
2nd: Elasticity basically refers to the investment required to request new capabilities whether it be more storage space or new software licenses. Elastic platform reduces the delay in getting access to new capabilities and business decisions can be implemented immediately. Elasticity removes the need for planning compute needs in advance by enabling a need-based provisioning system.
3rd: Uptime- continuous uptime has a major role to play when it comes to trust and continuity in any business. All your hosted services should always be online. Uptime is really critical for businesses, any service going offline can have devastating effects.
4th: data security. However great a computation platform may be, it is pointless if it’s not complemented by exceptional security. Centralized platforms are currently meeting the needs of the world but there’s a big cybersecurity risk due to the existence of a single point of failure. Decentralized platforms overcome this as they offer excellent security through the use of smart contracts.
5th: standards compliance. A lot of investment goes into making sure the final product is standards-compliant. Cloud computing giants offer compliance tools, but they incur additional costs for every regulation or standard, thus leaving the user at a disadvantage. Users want their systems to talk to each other without having to buy additional adapters.
What do you think about blockchain-based decentralized cloud computing?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
We publish data-backed research reports on a variety of different sectors like decentralized cloud computing, file storage, sports betting and gambling, currency exchanges, e-commerce, privacy and security, and decentralized social media.
