Hybrid cloud and blockchain represent the best example of technological complementarity at the moment. Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that acts as a decentralized and distributed ledger, allowing all parties involved to maintain a transparent and secure system with inalienable records of data and transactions. On the other hand, a hybrid cloud solution refers to a system’s ability to combine public and private cloud IT infrastructure to benefit from both on-demand scalability of computing and storage resources and a level superior control, privacy and security.
But what are the benefits of aligning hybrid cloud and blockchain?
Experts consider the combination of these two technologies a logical and productive solution, where blockchain technology ensures secure and transparent transactions, while hybrid cloud or multi-cloud hybrid infrastructure offers scalability and control.
The Blockchain Revolution: Technological Challenges
Blockchain is a fundamental emerging technology of the fourth Industrial Revolution, just like the Internet which had this role for the previous industrial revolution. The claim belongs to the PwC report “Building block(chain)s for a better planet” presented at the World Economic Forum back in 2018. However, the blockchain sector faces various technological challenges that need to be managed quickly to reach maturity and deliver the expected benefits . It is important to note that these challenges are not unitary, but represent a multiple dilemma that must be addressed in an integrated manner.
Scalability and performance
Beyond the inherent complexity, the first technological challenges in blockchain adoption are scalability and performance. The size of the Bitcoin blockchain exceeded 500 gigabytes in 2023, and the database has seen exponential growth of almost a gigabyte every few days. Blockchain networks can become slow and inefficient due to the high computational requirements required to validate transactions. As the number of users, transactions and applications increase, the ability of blockchain networks to process and validate them in a timely manner becomes problematic. The industry is looking for solutions, and the emergence of technologies such as Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) and “mesh networks” will help increase scalability.
Energy consumption
Another critical aspect is the energy consumption associated with blockchain operations. The annual energy consumption of the Bitcoin network is estimated between 90 TWh and 160 TWh, depending on studies and methodologies. The process of validating transactions through consensus mechanisms such as proof-of-work can require significant energy resources, raising concerns about sustainability and environmental impact.
Compliance
Another important challenge is ensuring compliance with legal regulations and standards. Data stored on the blockchain can include sensitive information, and compliance with privacy and data protection regulations is essential.
Security
Although blockchain transactions are inherently secure, the underlying data can sometimes be vulnerable. Ensuring data privacy without compromising the decentralized nature of blockchain is a complex task. Protection against DDoS attacks and maintaining data integrity are also priorities in ensuring security.
Availability
Availability is crucial for critical blockchain-specific operations, which makes attention to redundancy, SLA, and at least Tier 3 compliance paramount.
Hybrid Cloud for blockchain: Advantages
The use of cloud computing in the blockchain industry is growing exponentially. Many cloud services and products support blockchain infrastructure, offering multiple types of solutions and services, from bare metal (dedicated physical servers) to public cloud (shared virtualized resources) and hybrid cloud (combined public cloud and private cloud resources). From M247’s perspective, using a hybrid cloud environment to run blockchain-specific applications is the approach that brings the most advantages, including improved security, increased scalability, and increased availability.
For any blockchain project, hybrid cloud or hybrid multi-cloud solutions provide access to high-performance infrastructure based on state-of-the-art technologies. Bare metal or private hosting, dedicated equipment from the most renowned global manufacturers is the best alternative to shared resources specific to public cloud infrastructure. Such solutions integrate virtualization, automation, disaster recovery, back-up, as well as management tools. Scalability is a native feature of cloud computing that can dynamically adapt to blockchain-specific load increases.
The cloud computing provider makes the difference
At the same time, migrating to the hybrid cloud can also bring a higher level of energy efficiency. M247 pays much more attention to energy consumption and has invested in high-performance transformation, power and cooling systems to offer customers advantageous rates for colocation and cloud. By outsourcing energy-intensive blockchain processes to a hybrid cloud provider, consumption can be significantly reduced and thus the associated costs.
Solving blockchain technology challenges through hybrid cloud solutions is a significant step towards streamlining and consolidating both technologies. Scalability, security, compliance and energy efficiency are critical aspects in the sustainable development of blockchain technology. However, these challenges must be addressed in an integrated manner and not in isolation, which is why it is important to choose a hybrid cloud provider that not only has a high-performance infrastructure, but can also offer all the services needed to successfully run a blockchain project.
Already have a blockchain-based application and looking for a way to increase performance? Are you planning a project that integrates blockchain but you lack the necessary IT infrastructure?
Schedule a chat with the M247 team and together we will overcome these challenges. Contact us at office@m247.com.
