Large Enterprises Leveraging DePIN
We are truly at the early stages of Enterprise IT teams adopting DePIN.
I am often meet with skepticism and some side-eye đ when I mention large enterprises and DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) in the same sentence. Many believe DePIN isnât ready for enterprise-scale security and support. This reminds me of the early 2000s when cloud and SaaS technologies were met with similar doubts. Back then, many thought enterprise IT teams would never give up their data, their on-prem servers, and their colocation data centers. But today cloud providers like AWS, Salesforce, GCP, Azure, and Oracle dominate the enterprise space.
Healthy skepticism is good, but my research shows many large enterprises are starting to explore DePIN. We are truly at the early stages of enterprise IT teams adopting DePIN. This transition from centralized providers to decentralized ones is similar to the shift from on-prem to cloud in the early 2000s. Some enterprises are already buying DePIN services, some are partnering with DePIN projects, while others are conducting âDePIN R&Dâ all in an attempt to improve operations, enhance security, and gain cost efficiencies. Letâs review some notable examples, be sure to check them all out â you wonât want to miss the last one!
- Enterprise Ready Cloud Compute: Akash Network and Equinix
- Enterprises supporting DePIN: Lumen and Flux
- DePIN Getting a Seat at the Table: LoRa AllianceÂŽ adds Verizon and Helium Network
- Managed Service Providers offer DePIN: ADN and Impossible Cloud
- Telco Benefits from DePIN: TelefĂłnica, Nova Labs and Helium Network
- DePIN R&D: Dish Network and Flux
- DePIN SLA: Parasail Drives Adoption
Enterprise Ready Cloud Compute: Akash Network and Equinix
Equinix, a global leader in data centers and colocation services with 220 data centers in 25 countries, has entered into a partnership with Akash Network to integrate decentralized cloud computing into its ecosystem. This collaboration aims to provide more scalable and cost-effective cloud solutions to Equinixâs enterprise customers, leveraging Akashâs decentralized GPU infrastructure for enhanced flexibility and efficiency.
Through Equinix Metal, Equinixâs on-demand and interconnected bare metal service, weâll be able to provide developers, companies, and projects across the blockchain ecosystem with a faster, more efficient, and lower-cost decentralized cloud alternative, with nearly unlimited use cases. With Akash and Equinix Metal, users can take advantage of global, low-latency, and powerful infrastructure through Akash Networkâs decentralized cloud.
Enterprises supporting DePIN: Lumen and Flux
Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) is a global publicly traded communications services company that provides networking, security, cloud solutions, voice, and managed services. Flux partnered with Lumen to offer enterprise-level infrastructure powered by Lumen Technologies. Node operators can now share nodes, creating a new and simple way for everyone to participate in building Web3. Providing virtualization of server staking to allow users and operators to crowdsource smaller stake amounts on each node with LumenÂŽ Edge Private Cloud
DePIN Getting a Seat at the Table: LoRa AllianceÂŽ adds Verizon and Helium Network
In a different type of partnership, earlier this year the LoRa Alliance, a non-profit association that promotes the adoption of LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) technology for wireless communication in the Internet of Things (IoT), added telecom giant Verizon and one of the original DePIN projects Helium to their board of Directors. Its members closely collaborate and share expertise to develop and promote the LoRaWANÂŽ standard, which is the de facto global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWAN connectivity.
The Allianceâs recognition of the work Helium Network has done and elevating them to having a board seat shows just how much DePIN projects are gaining respect in the technology space stating that:
Heliumâs community-based model has enabled connectivity in areas where other networks may not have been deployed, providing a LoRaWAN network with over 300K active gateways in 125 countries, covering over 60% of the population in North America and more than 50% of the population in Europe.
Managed Service Providers offer DePIN: ADN and Impossible Cloud
ADN or the Advanced Digital Network Distribution GmbH is a Managed Services Providers (MSP) that offers cloud, virtualization, networking, storage, security, and related IT services. They are a value-added distributor for over 50 manufacturers and support over 6,000 partners in Germany, Austria and Switzerland â often times re-selling and packaging services from many providers to meet the needs of their customers. Recently they went looking for the best storage solution and according to ADNâs CEO that lead them to Impossible Cloud Network a european based decentralized compute network. Impossible Cloud offers a number of services but is specialized in storage and GDPR compliance.
The two organizations have now entered into an agreement that allows ADN to offer Impossible Cloud services to their entire customer base. Some of the key benefits to ADNâs customers highlighted in the partnership include Clear Pricing, Predictable Costs and Fast Onboarding times â all stem the services offered by Impossible Cloud.
âBy partnering with ADN, we can make our cloud technology accessible to a wider market. ADNâs extensive network and in-depth understanding of its customersâ needs enable us to jointly offer a solution that is not only secure and powerful, but also precisely tailored to the requirements of end users and partners.â
Telco Benefits from DePIN: TelefĂłnica, Nova Labs and Helium Network
TelefĂłnica (NYSE: TEF) the worldâs leading telecommunications services provider has partnered with Nova Labs, which builds services on the Helium Network, to extend TelefĂłnicaâs coverage in Mexico City and Oaxaca. Leveraging Helium Mobile Hotspots TelefĂłnica and Nova Labs have built a solution based on the OpenWifi standard that enables select customers in Mexico to access the Helium Mobile Network using their SIM cards for authentication. This will extend TelefĂłnicaâs coverage and enable offloading of mobile data to the Helium Mobile Network and improve overall mobile coverage service for customers.
The use of Helium Mobile Hotspots reduces telecommunications infrastructure costs significantly, with lower capex and opex costs and minimal environmental impact. In addition, it enables a community of individuals and small business owners to deploy Helium Mobile Hotspots and enable TelefĂłnica to accelerate coverage growth while continuing to provide a quality service to its customers.
DePIN R&D: Dish Network and Flux
Last year Dish network conducted an internal hackathon that was looking to experiment with new technologies, challenge the status quo and look for different ways to innovate. As part of the wireless hackathon workshop the team built a new cutting edge monitoring solution leveraging DePIN Flux deploying autoasaler clusters directly to Flux nodes for a redundant, cost effect monitoring solution for Dishâs wireless networks. Expirmentation is always a solid first step to full blown adoption.
DePIN SLA: Parasail Drives Adoption
When large enterprises purchase from any cloud provider, or really any vendor, they expect a certain level of service typically referred to as an SLA (Service Level Agreement). It could be measured using different metrics like uptime, available compute power, processing time or delivery time to name a few. The typically remedy for failing to meet an SLA is some type of monetary compensation either in the form of a cash rebate or future credit. DePINs have historically struggled to offer competitive SLAs which has been a barrier to enterprise DePIN adoption.
Well earlier this year one of my favorite new project launched to help solve this exact issue: Parasail Network. Parasail aims to be the first Decentralized SLA Engine that is powered by Restaked Assets. Aiming to drive adoption, Parasail allows consumers to delegate their token assets to provide on-chain economic guarantees for DePIN services and earn DePIN rewards. They currently support Filecoin and have been working with Peaq (a module DePIN launch pad) to expand their reach.
Their services should allow enterprises to use DePIN with confidence and receive on-chain payouts in major tokens when services fail. This represents a huge step forward in service level guarantees for DePIN services. I for one will be watching this project very closely as it represents a significant advancement in the DePIN enterprise adoption story!
Closing Thoughts
The above are just a handful of the dozens of possible examples I could have given of Enterprises working with DePIN providers. Hopefully you now see that your skepticism and your side-eye (yeah I am not going to drop it) may be uncalled for. Even though we are in the early stages â a move from centralized service providers to decentralized providers is already under way and may happen much faster than you think!
