Blockchain in the Cloud: Creating an effective blockchain cloud infrastructure strategy

How to use Cloud to solve blockchain challenges

The use of blockchain in different industries is?accelerating. As new blockchain use-cases emerge,?the?underlying technologies need to stay aligned. Blockchain services are now being utilised on top of cloud-based products and services. This is because cloud technologies?address many of the?pain points associated with blockchain development. In this article we discuss the benefits of blockchain combined with cloud,?such as workforce management, operational costs, and time-to-market release.

Choosing a cloud provider

Before we dig deeper into any discussion about underlying cloud technology, it is important to recognise the differences between cloud service providers (CSP).?They may offer very different solution sets?and not all will meet the needs of?your?ideal?blockchain?infrastructure.

When it comes to developing your blockchain infrastructure, hybrid and multi-cloud options are crucial, as they open the door to blockchain interoperability and decentralisation. Some CSPs are multi-local, which is?an advantage?for the decentralised nature of the blockchain back-end. However, only providers who have developed a large?portfolio of implemented solutions?are likely to offer?both hybrid and multi-cloud networking services.

A cloud?provider’s stance on regulatory policies is also important. Not all providers will offer industry-specific compliance guidelines and data sovereignty regulations, such as?GDPR within the EU. Some providers operate within these frameworks and are fully compliant. A provider might also offer the benefits of open-source solutions, which is a huge asset for interoperability, reversibility, and multi cloud strategies.

Very few cloud service providers offer their cloud products with no ingress and egress data traffic fees. These assurances?are vital, as they are likely to?save you money in the long run.

Cloud technology to power the blockchain industry.

Cloud solutions appear to be the logical choice when it comes to powering your blockchain technology. There are a?range of viable cloud technologies that?cater to blockchain?infrastructure requirements, including:

Bare-metal

A dedicated server gives the user total flexibility to design the software layer, so you get the control you need to design and manage your machine. With cloud-based bare-metal servers, the hardware is maintained by the provider. The solution is delivered with networking features such as enhanced public connectivity bandwidth options, and private vLAN connectivity, helping you meet clustering, and scalability requirements.

Additionally there are built-in hardware capabilities that are a great fit for enhanced blockchain security, such as Intel Software Guard Extension (SGX) allowing dedicated servers equipped with specific CPU chipsets for confidential computing based on hardware encryption. Read more about SGX.

Public Cloud

Public Cloud solutions are well-suited to the needs of blockchain companies.?The technology’s underlying bare-metal resources are shared with more than one business, on top of which the cloud service provider has built the product itself.

Public Cloud solutions enable users to increase efficiency through automation. For example, when using Public Cloud services Hypervised via open-source software, such as OpenStack, users can - using the OpenStack CLI, Terraform, or Ansible -?achieve this for VM-based automation and management.

There are also specialised orchestration tools like Kubernetes, with a fully managed master node layer and automations. This form of cloud-based infrastructure, known as Managed Kubernetes, is often used?by blockchain developers because it decreases the time-to-market as well as the need for hardware maintenance. By harnessing the?right technologies, DevOps talents can spend more time focusing on proper R&D.

Hosted Private Cloud

Hosted private cloud platforms help tackle the pain point of shared resources. Unlike Dedicated Servers, which are Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS), Hosted Private Clouds are more likely to be Platform as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions. These clusters are equipped with specialised Hypervisor?solutions, from companies such as Nutanix,?and VMware. They specialise in building software that manages underlying infrastructure. These solutions include integrated, ready-to-use features offering capabilities such as infrastructure management and monitoring, custom virtualised networking, automation, plus disaster recovery and backup options.

These solutions offer improved redundancy features,?such as service uptime due to high availability. This improves fault tolerance as the product itself is designed with a minimum of two hosts. If one of the underlying nodes goes down, the overall infrastructure is still operable. In short, hosted private cloud can be designed so that there is no single point of failure.

Cloud-based Platform as-a-Service solutions are best suited to the blockchain industry. More specifically, hosted private cloud products offer orchestration tools to develop private containerised environments. VMware and Nutanix offer orchestration products, such as Tanzu or Nutanix Kubernetes engine. These solutions are fully scalable, secure, and private.

Key considerations when choosing Cloud infrastructure.

The use of Cloud in the blockchain industry?is growing exponentially. Many cloud services and products?support?blockchain infrastructure needs?– whether?it’s bare-metal, Public Cloud, or Hosted Private Cloud solutions.

Choosing your ideal infrastructure provider for blockchain requires careful consideration. To make this easier we have devised a set of criteria that will help you assess the attributes of key suppliers:

Companies should choose a cloud provider based on key attributes, including:

OVHcloud is uniquely positioned to offer the best possible experience for blockchain organisations across a number of sectors. In fact, at the time of writing, OVHcloud hosts over 10% of the Ethereum?Mainnet nodes and 26% of Solana nodes.

Blockchain and Cloud may well be a match made in heaven, but the combination requires careful selection and planning with your Cloud provider and a strong partnership to stay ahead of the challenges that are sure to come your way.

Author Bio

Omar Abi Issa is an award-winning Head of Business Development for Northern Europe at OVHcloud, with over 8 years of experience working with clients in the B2B SME/Enterprise areas. He specialises in helping tech companies with a strong focus on blockchain, AI & ISV sector achieve higher performance and lower operational costs. Omar is a trilingual blockchain specialist and has spoken at all-party parliamentary groups on blockchain and related topics.