For most people, blockchain technology is something they hear about only when the value of Bitcoin makes a headline-making leap to dizzying dollar values or plummets to jump-off-the-nearest-bridge depths — perhaps all in the same day.
But blockchain is about a whole lot more than cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It has the potential to solve very thorny security issues that your IT teams and security vendors have been wrestling with for years — security challenges that have become boardroom issues over the past decade because they represent existential threats to businesses. From an executive standpoint, security is no longer someone else’s responsibility. It’s something every executive needs to understand and devote attention to, which is why blockchain needs to be on your radar screen.
Edge Computing Makes Security Even More Important
One major trend that is making blockchain particularly relevant is the increasingly distributed nature of data center infrastructure. In the past, companies had one data center where they focused their security strategy. Now, edge computing is placing valuable company data and assets in locations that are much harder to protect with traditional security measures.
Blockchain enables digital assets to be tracked and protected just like physical assets you can hold in your hand and put behind lock and key. That’s the concept, anyway. And it’s a concept that has the potential to radically change how companies protect their most important data and IT operations.
Why Blockchain May Be The Answer
One of the reasons blockchain is so well-suited for a world of distributed IT infrastructure is that it turns a weakness into a strength by using the open nature of the internet as the foundation for protecting information and assets.
Rather than using a centralized security methodology that tries to keep information behind walls, blockchain is a way to protect data that is out in the open or that resides in many locations throughout the public and private internet. Using a distributed database structure, blockchain establishes trust between counterparties that limits access to information and tracks all access to that information. Based on its distributed structure, blockchain offers a degree of security not found in traditional centralized IT configurations. By distributing and replicating information across both the chain and an unlimited number of physical servers, blockchain eliminates the single entry point that hackers seek to gain entry for their attacks.
Blockchain In Your Data Center And In The Cloud
Views on the potential impact of blockchain methodology vary widely, with many predictions and emerging applications focused on utilizing it to develop new applications that can deliver more secure transactions that come with a clear paper trail of digital documentation. This will impact the apps that live in data centers, but blockchain technology will also impact the physical operations of data centers.
The most significant role that blockchain may play with IT infrastructure is in the cloud. Since it has been developed to enable use across a distributed infrastructure, blockchain promotes the expansion of secure autonomous operations. This allows companies to put more data, applications and other mission-critical assets in the cloud rather than within a central data center.
There are, however, a few limitations to a blockchain-based cloud. For example, the need to use highly secure transmission protocols for communications between its distributed nodes can make blockchain more costly than traditional cloud operations.
The Future May Be Blockchain As A Service
Even though blockchain won’t replace the operational structure of the cloud anytime soon, we may see cloud providers using blockchain in more limited but impactful ways in the meantime with blockchain as a service (BaaS) offerings. While BaaS offerings from providers like IBM, Microsoft, AWS and Google are still in their infancy, they offer potential blockchain users a more accessible path to incorporating blockchain-based applications into their operations. Among the benefits of the BaaS model are:
• Seamless blockchain provisioning experience
• Interoperability with other platforms as a service offering
• Simplified operation
• Easy to program
Blockchain is poised to have a very big impact on how companies protect digital assets and deliver services to customers. You typically hear about blockchain in the context of Bitcoin, but not long ago, clouds were just something in the sky. And look how big a role clouds play in your corporate strategy now.
