If you like to keep up with tech news and read articles or blog posts that explore the relationship between innovative technology and the business sector you may have often stumbled on statements like “data is the new gold”, “data is akin to crude oil” or more general ones like “data is the most valuable resource of the digital age”. For the uninitiated, these affirmations may seem like overstatements that aim to boost the image of tech companies and increase the visibility of their products or services. But the fact of the matter is that we live in a world governed by data. Everything ranging from traffic lights to digital billboards, medical equipment and air traffic control relies on data to be efficient and accurate.
As our world is steadily becoming more digitized, our relationship with data is slowly changing. Many statistics companies and publications point out that we are currently generating more data than at any point in our history. Beyond improving a wide range of businesses, services and unlocking a new venue of opportunities both at a macro and a micro level, the colossal amount of data we generate at a global level raises some security concerns. Seeing that the value of data has spiked in recent decades, data has become a prime target for malicious actors who want to make a quick and easy profit by hijacking valuable information to extract a ransom or by selling the data on the dark web to the highest bidder.
Modex delivers trust, the new currency of the digital world
Modex has created its trademark Blockchain Database (BCDB) solution, a technological layer that fuses a blockchain layer with a database system, a technology that is already deeply ingrained in every business and industry sector that makes frequent use of large data pools, to create a hybrid software product that delivers high levels of data availability, integrity immutability, enhanced encryption as well as a data reconstruction function to safeguard sensitive information.
Designed as a middleware software solution, Modex BCDB combines the functionality and familiarity of traditional database systems with blockchain, a technology designed to deliver a slew of disruptive features such as data integrity, immutability, traceability, distribution and decentralization that can help companies consolidate their data storage systems. Packaged as an Infrastructure as a Service offering, Modex BCDB is devised to act as a building block that companies can use to build an infrastructure tailored to their specific business requirements. What makes the Modex technological layer stand out is the fact that it incorporates a blockchain component that unlocks a series of powerful features and functionalities without requiring any prior knowledge of blockchain development. Furthermore, companies can use the Blockchain Database solution to build a new infrastructure for their business or complement their existing IT framework to unlock a slew of data-related benefits.
The evolving data landscape
An exponential data increase between 2010 and 2020
According to Forbes, the creation, capturing, copying, and consumption of data in the world increased from 1.2 trillion gigabytes to 59 trillion gigabytes. This increase represents an approximate growth of 5000% in just one decade. A significant portion of this number can be attributed to the COVID outbreak that forced many companies to shift to a work from home environment.
For 2020, Domo calculated that the average person generated roughly 1,7 megabytes per second which would mean that every person on the planet generated 146,880 GB a day. Given the fact that the world’s population will soon pass the 8 billion mark, it’s safe to say that in the near future the amount of data we will produce will rise exponentially.
Statista predicts that by 2025 data creation will be over 180 zettabytes, about 118,8 zettabytes more than in 2020. For further clarification, data is measured in bits and bytes. One bit contains a value of 0 or 1. Eight bits make a byte. Then we have kilobytes (1,000 bytes), megabytes (1000² bytes), gigabytes (1000³ bytes), terabytes (1000⁴ bytes), petabytes (1000⁵ bytes), exabytes (1000⁶ bytes) and zettabytes (1000⁷ bytes).
Google is the undisputed search engine champion
Internet Live Stats reports that Google is processing an average of over 40,000 search queries every second which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Add to this the fact that the American multinational company owned by Alphabet Inc. holds over 87% of the global search engine market share as of 2021, it becomes safe to assume that Google will remain in the pole position of the search engine race. An interesting fact about Google is that 16% to 20% of searches made every day have never been asked before. So, Google generates new sets of data daily, instead of repeating the same set of information. Another interesting fact, a Google search uses approximately 1000 computers in 0,2 seconds to retrieve an answer.
WhatsApp is the top choice of people and businesses
With a user base of over 2 billion people, WhatsApp is the most downloaded and popular messaging app. Available in 180 countries and 60 different languages worldwide, the messaging app is actively used by 5 million businesses to connect to their customers. Approximately 65 billion messages are exchanged daily on WhatsApp.
Big data
The current enterprise landscape has evolved to a point where it requires collecting and storing vast amounts of data for analysis. This significant increase in the pace of data collection has given rise in the early 2000s to the concept of big data that describes a massive collection of both structured and unstructured data that is so large that it becomes difficult to process through traditional database mechanisms. The increased shift towards big data owes largely in part to its ability to enhance and enable more accurate intelligent decisions and strategic business moves. Most people view big data as strictly a quantitative measurement, but this is not the case, as it also encompasses the range of technologies used to process, organize and store all the information. As with traditional database systems, when the volume of data spikes, security concerns increase in complexity.
Modex BCDB helps businesses and enterprises to enhance the security of their big data systems. Blockchain technology has proven itself an ideal data storage medium when implemented correctly because it unlocks a series of features and functionalities capable of ensuring a secure data infrastructure: decentralization, transparency, real-time backup, data immutability, and integrity, in-depth information tracking.
How is Modex Blockchain Database different from traditional data storage
Devised as a solution that can easily complement existing infrastructures and systems, Modex has utilized its technological stack to create a new type of data storage medium capable of augmenting traditional cloud and data warehousing offerings:
- Security – there is a common misconception that cloud service providers are solely responsible for securing their clients’ data. The fact of the matter is that data security is a joint responsibility between cloud providers and the beneficiary. The global hacking campaign known as “Cloud Hopper” is probably the most notable example of this point. By utilizing complex encryption mechanisms, hashing algorithms and through the distributed nature of its blockchain component, Modex BCDB adds a much-needed layer of security to cloud infrastructures.
- Removing integration friction points – IaaS offers the ideal building blocks for creating new IT infrastructures from the ground up. But transitioning an existing system to the cloud is still a difficult task, especially if we take into consideration legacy systems. Modex BCDB can seamlessly connect to existing systems through a set of custom connectors. Once connected to an application, Modex BCDB grants access to all of the inherent advantages of blockchain technology without affecting the user’s interaction with the original system.
- Customizable encryption – public cloud users may have limited control and ability to customize. Modex BCDB comes with an inbuilt encryption mechanism that can be set to function at the field level or at the column level.
- Data availability – even the largest cloud service provider experiences downtime. By distributing data across an intricate web of computer nodes, the BCDB solution unlocks new levels of availability for companies’ most valuable asset, their data.
- Enhanced data visibility and transparency – the Modex technological layer unlocks data traceability through which data owners can determine who accessed their information.
- Privacy and data ownership – a major downside of public cloud infrastructures is that data owners are required to give up a portion of control over their data to the cloud provider. Through the clever use of hashing, Modex BCDB creates a hash digest of the information stored in the database and moves it into the blockchain to act as proof of ownership.
