The Future of Data Storage Is Here. Where Are You?

Key Points

Data storage in a centralized system has always had issues that seemed to be un-resolvable and hard to break through. Ever since the development of technology came to the headlines, hope for a better way of storing data that is secure and permanent has been prevalent. With the advent of decentralized network platforms, storage systems have been made easy for huge organizations and big companies. The blockchain nodes are now going to save and secure your data, converting it into a permanent form. While keeping it safe, it also functions as a peer-to-peer transfer of data.

The Interplanetary File System and Swarm are the upcoming technologies to keep records of the data and store it for safekeeping. In this technology, all the information is stored in the nodes of a single block; this way, at the time of retrieval, all the data is accessible when needed. These provide a quick technical fix to problems posed by centralized data storage systems. These technologies are the best alternatives to data storage techniques since retrieval of data is made easy through these techniques. These protocols are quite similar in the manner of their performance, especially when they are each set on the same base and aim to replace the centralized way of data storage.

Interplanetary File System

InterPlanetary File System is a peer-to-peer network that is a decentralized data storage method that connects all the devices working to each other, creating a huge decentralized space for the data, which gets automatically broken down into nodes or spaces in a blockchain that is easy to analyze and access. Nodes refer to the different computing devices that are present in the IPFS network. When the need for data retrieval arises, all the data is linked to the hash key based on the contents of the data itself. Using this one hash key, all the data can be accessed at the same time. 

This concept is termed content addressable storage. All this is completely set upon Hypermedia, being the upgraded version of Hypertext. Where HTTP is highly prone to cyber-attacks, being a centralized technology, one attack can slow down or even shut down all domains. However, in the functioning of IPFS, all the nodes are independent and do not require any kind of attachment to one another. IPFS allows low-cost communication among the nodes. 

Swarm

Basically, the swarm technology deals with Ethereum storage and stores it on public nodes. It is also used to store the data of the decentralized application and blockchain. Files stored on this platform are linked to the hash; for retrieval, the hash of the content is used. There is no chance of the system failing. Even if one node of the system fails or is attacked, the rest of the nodes in the web have redundant data to recover from the shock. In order to attack the system, a thousand supercomputers are needed so that all the nodes can be accessed. 

This system also involves incentives, which have proven to be useful as they ensure smart contracts and other related protocols, making it useful for every platform and, in turn, making Swarm stronger. It allows a flexible increase in storage when further growth in limitation is required.