fledge.io brings blockchain based private, secure file sharing for apps across cloud, datacenter and edge
In the last blog, I had talked about key data infrastructure enhancements to fledge.io Cloud. These enhancements are intended to help with the following
- Enable geo-distributed applications to easily and securely share the data among microservices
- Offer tools visualize the data for analysis purposes
- Enable stateful migration of microservices across locations and providers
This is the next product enhancement announcement in the context of fledge.io data infrastructure.
Blockchain based secure file sharing across cloud and edge
Many application microservices are stateful and require config files during initialization process. They also produce and consume data at runtime, which defines the runtime state of the microservice. Some of this data is stored in a database or as just files.
In addition to the application state, the applications maybe serving data (content) in a distributed environment to it’s users. So in effect would need a CDN-like capability.
So such applications need a data framework to have access to the config and data files both during bootup and at runtime. It can be complex to make such files easily accessible when the microservices are geo-distributed across locations and providers. This becomes a key deterrent for stateful migrations of such applications due to the dependence on the data and files.
fledge.io Cloud now offers blockchain based private secure file sharing across clouds, datacenters and edges.
Here are the highlights
- fledge.io Cloud now has built-in private file sharing service across the geo-distributed environments
- Any node managed by fledge.io (located in any cloud, datacenter or edge) has automatic and secure access to this service
- The file APIs authenticate the file access, only allowing legitimate access
- The files (config, data…) can be added to this system and accessed anywhere across the application span either in the cloud or edge and accessed securely by the application
- The files are securely stored and are resistant to tampering
- This whole service runs on fledge.io App SDWAN, which provides encrypted connectivity across cloud and edge
- The service is full multi tenant capable
It is super easy to use – the blockchain technology is fully transparent to the application i.e. applications will continue to access the files using normal file names (as they do today) and will be oblivious to the underlying blockchain mechanism
So how does this help customers? in short – be untethered
- Ease of config management for microservices: when microservices are initially created, the corresponding config files can be added into this service and it becomes accessible in real time anywhere the microservices are deployed. In addition, config updates can be rolled out easily too
- Application portability: a key complexity associated with a stateful microservice (or application) migration is the data migration. Now whenever a service needs to be migrated to another location, provider, cloud, datacenter or edge, the data can be accessed seamlessly from the new location. So the service can continue where it left off previously in the other location, making stateful migrations very simple
- Content Delivery Applications: the application data is cached locally at the edges, so I/O to the cloud is optimized because the application will have to fetch the data from the cloud only once initially. Applications that need to serve content to geo-distributed users can leverage this capability and host the content in a central cloud, and easily and cost-optimally deliver content to distributed user base. This capability can be used on any cloud, datacenter or edge environments without the dependence on CDNs
One of the key deterrents for customers to embrace hybrid, multi cloud and edge is the complexity of data management. fledge.io Cloud now solves that problem for customers, by not only offering all the security and benefits of blockchain but also along with ‘ease-of-use’ by making it transparent.
Reach out to us at info@fledge.io to see a demo of file sharing on fledge.io Cloud.
Pramodh Mallipatna
Founder and CEO
fledge.io