Exploiting Blockchains to improve Data Upload and Storage in the Cloud

Abstract

Cloud computing is an information technology that enables different users to access a shared pool of configurable system resources and different services without physically acquiring them. So, it saves managing cost and time for organizations and can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management effort. Most industries nowadays such as banking, healthcare and education are migrating to the cloud due to its efficiency of services especially when it comes to data security and integrity. Cloud platforms encounter numerous challenges such as Data de-duplication, Data Transmission, Data Integrity, Virtual Machine Security, Data Availability, Bandwidth usage… etc. In this paper, we have adopted the Blockchain technology - which is a relatively new technology - that emerged for the first time as the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and proved its efficiency in securing data and assuring data integrity. It is mostly a distributed public ledger that holds transactions data in case of Bit coin. In our work, Blockchains are adopted in a different way than its regular use in Bitcoin. Three of the major challenges in Cloud Computing and Cloud services are Data De-duplication, Storage and Bandwidth usage are discussed in this paper.