info_tfgrid/collections/tech/innovations/zstor_innovation_short.md

### The Problem

Traditional backend storage systems have their roots in centralized environments, focusing on low-latency and closed security setups. However, these characteristics make them less suitable for use in decentralized cloud contexts.

Newer generation storage systems such as protocol-driven or blockchain-based solutions may face scalability and performance limitations and may not fulfill certain critical requirements that we consider essential.

### Introducing Zero-Stor

A redesigned storage system which can scale to a planetary level. It is super secure, private and fast enough for more use cases. It is designed to operate in a decentralized context and data can never be lost or corrupted.

This storage system is:
- A backend storage system
- It cannot be used by end users
- It's meant to be integrated with a front end storage system like e.g. S3 or a filesystem


### The Benefits


- **Data resilience:** ensures data is never lost or corrupted.
- **Planetary scalability:** capable of scaling to a global level.
- **Cost-efficient:** offers exceptional cost efficiency.
- **Versatility:** suitable for various use cases, including archiving, backup, files, and CDNs.
- **Low overhead:** requires only a 20% overhead for building a storage network where any four nodes can be lost simultaneously, compared to a 400% overhead in traditional storage systems.
- **Security and privacy:** provides robust security and is even impervious to quantum computers.
- **Data sovereignty:** users have complete control over data placement.
- **Empowering front-end applications:** can be integrated into various front-end storage applications, such as blockchains, archives, or S3.
- **CDN support:** functions effectively as a backend for CDN applications, facilitating content delivery.
- **Sustainability:** uses 10 times less energy compared to traditional storage systems, contributing to sustainability efforts.
- **Locality aware:** data can be delivered to where the users are which is ideal for sovereign use cases.


### Status

- Zero-OS has been in beta for over four years, with continuous development and improvement.
- A notable deployment in Switzerland, with over 50 petabytes of storage capacity, served as a substantial test environment, although it's no longer active.
- Within the current TFGrid network, there is an impressive capacity of over 20 petabytes available for use.
- Lacking some monitoring but documentation will be added in TFGrid 3.15
- Previous releases have been successfully utilized by major government organizations on a massive scale (hundreds of petabytes), providing strong evidence of the concept's viability and effectiveness.