Frequent accidents | Cloud storage giant Microsoft Azure has major accidents causing shocks

Recently, Microsoft Azure cloud caused major shocks due to DNS configuration accidents worldwide. The technical term for the three-hour downtime is TITSUP: Total Inability To Support Users' Packets.

The platform-wide disruption has disrupted various Redmond hosting systems around the world, from Azure SQL databases and application services to multi-factor authentication, Microsoft 365 and teams, Dynamics, SharePoint Online and OneDrive.

"Customers may experience intermittent connectivity issues with Azure and other Microsoft services (including M365, Dynamics, DevOps, etc.)."

"Engineers are studying DNS resolution issues affecting network connections. Connection issues have caused impact on downstream computing, storage, and database services, and some customers may not be able to submit support requests."

"Over time, more information will be provided and some customers may start to see recovery."

On the Microsoft 365 announcement page, Redmond’s technicians accused internal DNS configuration errors of causing downtime:

Users may not be able to access Microsoft 365 services or features. More information: Affected services include SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams, Stream, Power BI, Planner, Forms, PowerApps, Dynamics 365, Intune and Office Licensing. We have identified and corrected DNS configuration issues that prevented users from accessing Microsoft 365 services and features. We have observed an increase in successful connections, and our telemetry indicates that all services are being restored. We will continue to monitor the environment to verify that the service has been restored.

The technology giant added that the wrong migration of its DNS system was ultimately to blame: engineers found that the underlying root cause was that the name server commissioned changes affected DNS resolution and caused downstream computing, storage, application services, AAD and SQL database services.

"In order to alleviate the problem, engineers corrected the name server delegation problem. Applications and services that access misconfigured domains may cache incorrect information, resulting in longer recovery times until the cached information expires."

Centralized storage accidents happen frequently and cause great distress to users. What about the future of decentralized storage?

The future of decentralized storage

Decentralized storage will present the following development trends in the future:

Security is improved, parallel processing continues to increase transmission speed and optimize user experience

All stored files or records can be safely protected in the server, and users do not have to worry about file damage or loss; the parallel processing data feature of decentralized cloud storage also speeds up data transmission and additionally optimizes user operations Experience.

Idle storage space is more fully utilized, smart contracts reduce human operation risks

Under the decentralized storage "shared hard disk" mechanism, users with free hard disk space can get incentives by sharing idle storage space, which also transfers the high hardware costs of centralized storage, and greatly saves users. . At the same time, the reward and punishment mechanism is automatically determined based on smart contracts, without the intervention of third-party agencies, and it also eliminates the risks that may be caused by human operations.

The data block mechanism and the application of cryptography ensure that transactions cannot be denied and destroyed, and protect user information and privacy records

Under the decentralized method, the data uploaded by users to the cloud is divided into small pieces, encrypted, stored in a distributed manner, and randomly distributed to nodes provided by users around the world, greatly reducing privacy data leakage and data suffering The possibility of hijacking and tampering has also improved the security of user data operations.

Generally speaking, decentralized cloud storage has many advantages over centralized storage. Especially in the public cloud industry, decentralized methods are likely to break the industry pattern. Traditional storage service providers are also deployed here, and decentralized in the future The development of the cloud storage industry deserves our attention.

IPFS/Filecoin

To store private data on a network driven by IPFS and Filecoin, our data will be stored on different computers as much as possible, which means that part of the data will be distributed on many different computers, and between these computers All complete strangers. The data stored by the customer will be broken down into multiple fragments and sent to the hard disks of different storage miners, maximizing the decentralized storage of data. Compared with centralized storage, in terms of data privacy, it is undoubtedly decentralized. The storage method is dominant. You know, many cloud storage service providers today store user data without encryption.

Decentralized storage not only introduces blockchain technology, but is more based on the incentive layer on the distributed file system. Just like Filecoin, the sharing economy is brought into play, so that idle hard disk space can be fully utilized, saving the construction cost of centralized storage, based on blockchain technology, the security is higher, and data extraction and storage come from multiple sources. Distributed nodes, multiple chains are faster in parallel. Token incentives make more users willing to share their idle resources, thus revitalizing the storage market.