Cloud and Decentralized Infrastructure

This unit examines how blockchain, Web3, and cloud platforms converge to shape modern distributed systems and the data ecosystems that feed AI. Students explore real-world blockchain supply chain and public-good use cases, assess major cloud providers and growth trends, and learn to design scalable data infrastructure for AI and future computing models.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze blockchain use cases (supply chains and public-good applications) by identifying stakeholders, data flows, transparency benefits, and technical limitations from provided case studies
• Evaluate the principles of Web3 and emerging blockchain designs by comparing centralized versus decentralized models and assessing implications for security, governance, and scalability
• Compare and contrast the leading cloud providers and market trends, explaining service models, cost/performance tradeoffs, and how cloud growth influences architecture decisions
• Design a high-level, scalable data infrastructure strategy that integrates cloud services and decentralized components to support large-scale AI workloads and continuous data ingestion