The State of Cloud Storage: #Decentralize-Cloud

The cloud storage market should grow almost 20% over the next five years, to reach almost 235 billion dollars by 2028. However, currently dominated by a handful of centralized mega suppliers – namely Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and Microsoft – the current system is overloaded and the loss of data is more and more frequent.

And that does not mention the manipulation of possible information through these huge centralized suppliers who control a large part of the global internet alongside rampant censorship and supported by the government and, often, a simple human error which can have catastrophic consequences.

Indeed, the power of centralized cloud suppliers means that a shift in a developer can lead to enormous data loss, just like The case for an Australian pension fund In May 2024, the sales of which were accidentally deleted by the Google Cloud team. This shift has increased $ 125 billion in data from the Australian retirement savings that were recovered only because the fund itself was prudent with its backups.

Big Tech can, Will, and delete your data

Indeed, centralized cloud storage suppliers such as AWS and Google Cloud, for example, are mainly black boxes that do not provide their customers any information on how the network is executed, no guarantee against falsification or data permanence.

Indeed, as these hyperscalers all operate through subscription models, data is stored only as long as companies or individuals continue to pay, even if the data is of public interest. One of the reasons why the Internet is plagued by linkrot(A term for the disappearance of websites that have been linked) is, in part, due to the overall exceeding on centralized infrastructure, as well as expired areas and a lack of content archiving solutions.

The problem is still exacerbated by high switching costs, which lock data storage consumers who are faced with invoices that they cannot understand. For example, AWS S3 storage invoices are notoriously complex due to the various pricing patterns for __storage, transfer and recovery, including the data deletion costs of certain products.

Blockchains can – and are – built to never lose your data

Thanks to its decentralized nature, its inherent immutability and its resistance to censorship, blockchain technology can potentially solve a number of these problems. Indeed, we have seen a band of web3 project launch solutions that have tried to meet the evolutionary needs of cloud storage to various degrees.

These include IPFs in the peer cloud storage network. Essentially, a file sharing system, the IPF is based on individuals running customer software on their devices to make the storage space available. Although it is decentralized, however, it does not prevent failure, as several projects nft learned in 2021 when Links to their image files would not solve.

Indeed, in a March test, the team behind the AR.IO permanent Cloud storage network interviewed 15,000 SNA selected at random which indicated IPFS content identifiers (CID) and tried to recover each CID through two large public IPFS bridges. About one in four (25%) has expired or has not resolved at all, stressing how availability can depend on the gateways that always hide or pin the data.

AR.IO – The first permanent cloud network in the world

Other decentralized storage networks are delivered with the same set of problems. Neither SIA nor Storj, for example, guarantee long -term storage, and both count on coherent consumer payments. The only option on the market built differently is Ar.io.

Unlike Storj and SIA, the AR.IO team did not boot a network of storage suppliers, but rather built its product on the basis of a established permanent data storage network: Arweave. When storing data on Arweave, consumers pay once and receive a guarantee that their data will be kept for at least 200 years.

However, interacting directly with Arweave can be an arduous task, especially for those who do not know blockchain technology.

This is why Ar.io has created a better way to interact with Arweave by feeding both the download and recovery of data – the “in” and “out” of the blockchain. When you use AR.IO, the technical complexities are abstract without compromising the values ​​of web transparency, resistance to censorship and oneself.

AR.IO is the only cloud network for storage of permanent data

AR.IO has created the first Cloud network which allows users to store their data permanently. As long as the data exists, it remains accessible on Arweaae indefinitely thanks to recovery based on content and a global network of bridges. In comparison, other decentralized storage suppliers are still based on recovery based on location.

At first glance, centralized suppliers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 may seem cheaper to store 1 GB of data at $ 0.276 / year against $ 9.20 currently on Arweave. However, assuming regular access to data from 1,000 requests / months, the profitability threshold is reached after 11 years. And it is without calculating the costs saved by reducing the general administration costs.

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However, downloading data is only part of the equation; The other allows rapid recovery of data, especially for DAPPs. To achieve this, the AR.IO team has built a network of independent gateway operators that index, hides and serves data that relies on a network that improves reliability, guarantees great availability, improves system safety and deletes unique failure points.

Access to evolving data

Access is further improved thanks to the support of AR.IO for the AO computer – a decentralized calculation layer built on Arweave which allows developers to parallel data flows, plan applications to run autonomously and interact with real -time stored data. During storage on AR.IO, developers are not locked in web3; They can easily combine and carry out interoperability with web2 tools.

Another basic product of the AR.IO Permanent Cloud Network is the Arweave name system (ARNS) – a decentralized and permanent domain name (DNS) which maps the names readable by man with content on Arweave. Unlike other web3 denomination systems that work mainly as wallet addresses, Arns is designed for composability and can be integrated into applications, protocols and websites. If more people adopted RNA as a DNS model, current Internet problems with the rot of links would be radically reduced thanks to the permanent data storage, immutability and global accessibility.

Losing important data can be one thing in the past

The Internet is an incredible source of knowledge, however, it was not designed to last, and – because of this – we risk losing large quantities if the data is stored in a waterproofing manner. THE Internet archive arrest time From October 2024, when a hacker stole an authentication database of users containing details of more than 31 million users, was alarm to take the permanence of data more seriously.

Currently, in the United States, we also note a huge amount of data deliberately deleted public files, including information on health care and large quantities of government data. The loss of this data is the loss of knowledge, the historical preservation of the truth and, in turn, our power. The manipulation of public data is the manipulation of our company.

The permanent storage of cloud data is the only way by which we can ensure the preservation of this crucial and AR.io data offers the only really permanent, decentralized and censorship -resistant cloud storage network. Compared to any other Cloud – whether web2 giant Google, AWS or Web3's IPFS – AR.IO alone allows individuals and organizations to store and access data without risk of loss or manipulation.

With our advanced integrations, our Domain Names service Arns convivial and the fact that we are anchored in the “Pay-on-Store-Forever” model of Arweave, Ar.io is in a separate class. For the persons affected by the security and permanence of their data, AR.IO provides a viable alternative storage solution accessible to centralized cloud suppliers.