Blockchain Metadata Layer for Multi-Cloud Backup Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge of managing data across multiple cloud platforms (multi-cloud platforms) is significant due to the risk of data loss from a single-point failure, requiring a unified management solution that ensures security and reliability.
Innovation Solution
A data management method utilizing a blockchain network for decentralized and secure data management, dividing data into blocks and encoding metadata into backup identifiers for distributed storage and retrieval across multiple cloud platforms, with smart contracts for node reputation and scheduling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If data is stored on a single cloud platform, then storage simplicity is improved, but data security and reliability deteriorate due to single-point failure risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides data into multiple data blocks and distributes them across multiple cloud platforms. Each cloud platform stores only a portion of the data, eliminating the single-point failure risk while maintaining storage simplicity through automated distribution mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a blockchain network as an intermediary layer that coordinates data distribution and storage across multiple cloud platforms. The blockchain manages metadata, tracks data locations, and enables recovery operations without requiring direct complex interactions between users and multiple cloud providers.
2Reliability
If data is distributed across multiple cloud platforms, then data security and reliability are improved, but management complexity worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain network serves as a centralized coordination layer that simplifies management of distributed data. It stores metadata about data blocks, tracks their locations across cloud platforms, and enables unified recovery operations, thereby reducing management complexity despite physical data distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The blockchain network performs multiple functions including metadata storage, data location tracking, recovery coordination, and integrity verification. This multi-functional intermediary handles diverse management tasks through a single system, reducing overall complexity.
3Reliability
If data is divided and distributed across multiple cloud nodes, then security against single-point failure is improved, but data retrieval complexity worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain network acts as an intermediary that tracks the location of all data blocks across cloud platforms. When data retrieval is needed, the blockchain provides the necessary metadata and location information, enabling simple retrieval operations despite data being physically distributed across multiple nodes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the blockchain continuously tracks and updates data block locations across cloud platforms. This real-time information feedback enables the system to automatically route retrieval operations to the correct locations without user complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
This application provides a data management method, and the method includes: A client receives a backup plan configured by a user for to-be-backed-up data; the client divides the to-be-backed-up data into c data blocks based on a quantity of cloud nodes used for backup and a quantity of backup copies, and stores the c data blocks in n cloud nodes on multi-cloud platforms in a distributed manner, where for at least one data block in the c data blocks, the multi-cloud platforms store b backup copies of the at least one data block; and the client provides, for a blockchain network, metadata of the data stored on the multi-cloud platforms, so that the blockchain network encodes the metadata into a backup identifier, and stores the backup identifier, where the backup identifier is used to address the data stored on the multi-cloud platforms. In this method, cloud-chain convergence is performed with reference to features of the blockchain network of being decentralized, secure, and reliable, to improve security of multi-cloud backup data and eliminate a single-point security bottleneck in a conventional method.