"Distributed Protocol Underpinning Cloud Computing Automatically Determined Safe and Secure"
Researchers at the University of Michigan have automated a technique called formal verification, which is a step towards ensuring the safety, security, and proper functioning of protocols implemented to dictate how networked services operate. The system developed by the researchers proves, without human effort, that Paxos, one of the most foundational distributed computing protocols, does meet its specifications. This achievement disproves the notion that Paxos and other similar protocols are too complex to be proven secure without hours of human effort. The growth of cloud computing and the increased use of technologies such as blockchain applications have changed how organizations and individuals engage with computing, thus resulting in a world powered by networked machines that face a continuously growing load. This makes critical infrastructure more vulnerable to widespread, adverse effects from hackers, server outages, and more. Therefore, it is important to have airtight distributed protocols to ensure that software systems can run on machines spread globally. Paxos is one of the significantly complex algorithms defining how machines in a network can work together in a single system. It describes an approach known as consensus, which is used in almost all critical distributed systems, including applications supported by cloud computing. This article continues to discuss the Paxos consensus protocol, the concept of formal verification, and the study on the automatic verification of Paxos.