Dominic Williams on UTOPIA - private sovereign clouds on ICP blockchain - 27.june.2024 Nexus2050

Summary

The speaker introduces Utopia, a serverless cloud technology that promises to revolutionize enterprise and government computing. Utopia, which stands for Unstoppable, tamperproof open platform for independent autonomy, offers private, owner-controlled clouds that enhance security and productivity. It addresses cybercrime challenges and boosts IT efficiency, with the potential to host AI models and digital assets securely. The technology enables scalable, prompt-based application development and updates through generative AI, aiming to significantly increase productivity and control over data.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Utopia is a software technology for creating serverless clouds that are private and controllable by the owner.
• 🔒 The serverless clouds offer game-changing advantages such as security without firewalls or anti-malware, increased IT personnel productivity, and freedom from vendor lock-in.
• 💡 Utopia is the result of over a thousand person-years of R&D and is a spin-out from the Internet Computer project, making it a proven and battle-hardened solution.
• 📈 The global cost of cybercrime is projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2025, highlighting the urgent need for Utopia's security solutions.
• 🛡️ Utopia addresses major IT challenges by creating Byzantine fault-tolerant serverless clouds, which are resilient to data center failures and cyber attacks.
• 🔒 The technology behind Utopia makes ransomware penetration and data exfiltration impossible within the cloud environment.
• 🌍 Utopia allows for the creation of private serverless clouds over big tech cloud services or on home country hardware, providing sovereignty and avoiding vendor lock-in.
• 🚀 Utopia enables the development of mobile, local area secure unstoppable cloud platforms, useful for field environments and developing markets.
• 🏪 An app store is available with pre-made services from the web 3 space, repurposed for enterprise and government environments, such as passkey-based identity and secure file sharing.
• 🤖 AI models and digital assets can be securely hosted on Utopia, with the upcoming capability to run large language models and interact with external blockchains.
• 🔄 Utopia simplifies the scaling of applications by scaling the cloud itself, reducing the complexity and boosting productivity compared to traditional IT stacks.
• 💡 Utopia is optimized for prompt-based application development using generative AI, allowing for the creation and updating of enterprise systems through simple AI interaction.

Q & A

What does the acronym 'Utopia' stand for?

Utopia stands for Unstoppable, tamperproof open platform for independent autonomy.

What is the primary function of Utopia technology?

Utopia technology is designed for creating serverless clouds that are private and controlled by the owner, offering a software technology for building applications on a secure and autonomous platform.

Why is Utopia technology significant in the current cybersecurity landscape?

Utopia technology is significant because it provides a serverless cloud environment where applications are inherently safe without the need for firewalls and anti-malware, addressing the growing concern of cybercrime.

How does Utopia technology enhance the productivity of IT personnel?

Utopia enhances IT personnel productivity by offering a serverless model where software systems cannot crash, and by eliminating vendor lock-in, which simplifies the development and maintenance process.

What is the estimated global cost of cybercrime expected to reach by 2025?

By 2025, the global cost of cybercrime is expected to pass $1 trillion.

How does Utopia address the issue of ransomware attacks?

Utopia addresses ransomware attacks by creating serverless clouds that are resistant to both data exfiltration and system penetration, making the environment secure against such cyber threats.

What is the concept of 'Byzantine fault tolerance' mentioned in the script?

Byzantine fault tolerance is a method used by Utopia to create serverless clouds that are not vulnerable to the failure of a subset of data centers or to malicious insiders compromising part of the system.

How does Utopia technology allow for the escape from vendor lock-in?

Utopia technology allows for the escape from vendor lock-in by enabling the creation of private, serverless clouds that can be run over big tech cloud services or home country hardware, providing flexibility and control over the underlying compute nodes.

What are some of the advantages of building applications on Utopia's serverless clouds?

Building applications on Utopia's serverless clouds offers advantages such as increased security, enhanced IT personnel productivity, avoidance of vendor lock-in, and the ability to build on a platform that is resistant to data center failures and cyber attacks.

What is the potential impact of Utopia technology on the productivity of developing enterprise and government applications?

Utopia technology has the potential to significantly increase productivity by simplifying the development process, reducing the amount of code needed, and providing a platform for prompt-based application development using generative AI.

How does Utopia technology support the development of AI models and digital asset management?

Utopia technology supports the development of AI models by providing a secure and resilient environment to run them. It also allows for the secure hosting and processing of digital assets, with features like chain key technology to prevent asset theft even if hardware is compromised.

What is the significance of the virtual execution environment in Utopia's security approach?

The virtual execution environment in Utopia is significant because it encapsulates the entire cloud in a secure space, similar to how JavaScript runs within a web browser, preventing code from escaping and ensuring the security of the applications running within it.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 Introduction to Utopia: Redefining Enterprise and Government Computing

The speaker introduces the concept of 'Reinventing Enterprise and Government Computing' with Utopia, a serverless cloud technology. Utopia stands for 'Unstoppable, tamperproof open platform for independent autonomy' and offers private cloud solutions that can be run on various infrastructures, emphasizing sovereignty and security. The technology promises safety without traditional cybersecurity measures, increased IT personnel productivity, and freedom from vendor lock-in. Utopia is a result of extensive R&D, spun out from the Internet Computer project, and is designed to address significant challenges like cybercrime and enhancing IT personnel productivity. The speaker also highlights the impending global cost of cybercrime and the importance of resilient cloud platforms against data center failures and new threats.

05:00

🛡️ Utopia's Cybersecurity and Resilience Features

This paragraph delves into Utopia's approach to cybersecurity, which includes creating bantine fault-tolerant serverless clouds using mathematical replication across multiple data centers. This method ensures the cloud is resistant to both data center failures and malicious insiders. The technology also addresses the issue of ransomware, a prevalent and disruptive form of cyberattack, by ensuring that the cloud and hosted applications are tamperproof and unstoppable. The speaker explains that Utopia operates within a virtual execution environment, similar to JavaScript in a web browser, preventing code from escaping and ensuring security. The benefits of Utopia include avoiding vendor lock-in and the ability to create sovereign clouds with local hardware, which is crucial for governments mandating data sovereignty.

10:04

🚀 Utopia's Scalability and Productivity Enhancements

The speaker discusses the scalability and productivity advantages of Utopia. Traditional application scaling is often complex and time-consuming, but Utopia simplifies this process by allowing users to scale the cloud itself, which is a standardized and automated process. Applications on Utopia consist of only user experience, business logic, and data, significantly reducing the amount of code and configuration needed compared to traditional IT stacks. This reduction in complexity leads to a fivefold increase in productivity. Additionally, Utopia eliminates the need for various components such as web servers, application servers, databases, and cybersecurity systems, further streamlining the development and maintenance process. The speaker also mentions the potential for Utopia to support AI models and host digital assets securely, with upcoming capabilities to run large language models and interact with external blockchains.

15:08

🔮 Future of Utopia: AI-Driven Development and Enhanced Productivity

In the final paragraph, the speaker envisions a future where Utopia supports AI-driven development, allowing for the creation and updating of enterprise systems through simple interactions with AI. This approach promises a significant leap in productivity, potentially increasing it by 25 times or more. Utopia is designed to be optimized for prompt-based application development using general AI, enabling developers to build sophisticated enterprise and government applications that can be precisely tailored to their needs. The speaker also highlights the revolutionary aspect of being able to update running applications with data inside, simply by interacting with AI and refreshing the web browser link. This预示着 the speaker's belief that Utopia will lead to a profound change in how enterprise and government applications are developed and maintained.

Keywords

💡Utopia

Utopia is a term used to describe an ideal or perfect place or state. In the context of the video, it refers to a new software technology that aims to create an 'Unstoppable, tamperproof open platform for independent autonomy'. It is a serverless cloud technology that provides a private cloud environment controlled by the owner, which can be run over big tech clouds or on home country hardware, emphasizing sovereignty and security.

💡Serverless Clouds

Serverless Clouds are a type of cloud computing where the cloud provider manages the server infrastructure dynamically. In the video, they are described as private clouds that can be run over existing big tech cloud platforms for convenience or on home country hardware for sovereignty. They are highlighted for their game-changing advantages, such as safety without firewalls and anti-malware, increased IT personnel productivity, and freedom from vendor lock-in.

💡Cyber Crime

Cyber Crime refers to criminal activities that are conducted through the internet. The video mentions that by 2025, the global cost of cyber crime will exceed $1 trillion, emphasizing the urgency and significance of developing secure computing platforms like Utopia, which aims to provide safety against such threats.

💡IT Personnel Productivity

IT Personnel Productivity refers to the efficiency and effectiveness of information technology staff in performing their tasks. The video script highlights the importance of this by stating that Utopia's serverless model can vastly increase the productivity of IT personnel because the systems cannot crash, and there is no need for managing traditional IT infrastructure components.

💡Vendor Lock-in

Vendor Lock-in occurs when a customer is unable to switch to another product or service without substantial costs or inconvenience. In the video, it is mentioned as a significant issue for corporations and governments, and Utopia's serverless clouds are presented as a solution that allows building without vendor lock-in, thus providing more flexibility and control.

💡BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance)

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is a property of distributed systems that ensures they can continue operating even when some of the nodes are faulty or malicious. The video describes how Utopia creates BFT serverless clouds using mathematical replication, making the system resilient against data center failures and cyber attacks.

💡Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts a user's data and demands payment to restore access. The video uses the example of London hospitals canceling surgeries due to a ransomware attack to illustrate the disruptive nature of such cyber threats and how Utopia's approach to cybersecurity can mitigate such risks.

💡Virtual Execution Environment

A Virtual Execution Environment is a simulated computing environment that allows software to run in isolation from the host system. The video script explains that the entire Utopia Cloud runs inside such an environment, preventing code from escaping and ensuring the security of the applications running within it.

💡App Store

In the context of the video, the App Store refers to a platform where users can install applications directly onto their Utopia serverless clouds. It is mentioned as a feature that allows for the easy deployment of pre-made services, which have been adapted from the Web 3 space for enterprise and government use.

💡Web 3

Web 3, or Web 3.0, refers to the next generation of the internet, often associated with decentralized technologies like blockchain. The video mentions that the Utopia App Store features services that have been repurposed from the Web 3 space, indicating a shift towards more decentralized and secure applications.

💡Generative AI

Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can create new content, such as text, images, or code. The video discusses how Utopia is optimized for prompt-based application development using generative AI, allowing users to interact with AI to build and update enterprise systems dynamically.

Highlights

Introduction of Utopia, a new software technology for creating serverless clouds with private control.

Utopia's acronym stands for Unstoppable, tamperproof open platform for independent autonomy.

Utopia allows for serverless cloud applications to be safe without firewalls or anti-malware.

IT personnel productivity is greatly increased through Utopia's serverless model.

Utopia eliminates vendor lock-in, a significant issue for corporations and governments.

Utopia is a result of over a thousand person-years of R&D and a spin-out from the Internet Computer project.

The global cost of cybercrime is projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2025.

Utopia addresses the challenges of cybercrime and IT personnel productivity.

Utopia creates Byzantine fault-tolerant serverless clouds using mathematical replication.

The technology makes ransomware and other cyber attacks less disruptive.

Utopia's virtual execution environment prevents code from escaping, enhancing security.

Utopia enables the creation of private serverless clouds over big tech cloud services without vendor lock-in.

Governments can use Utopia to maintain sovereignty over data with serverless sovereign clouds.

Utopia supports the development of mobile local area secure unstoppable cloud platforms.

An app store is available for Utopia, offering pre-made services adapted from Web 3 for enterprise and government use.

Utopia simplifies the scaling of applications by scaling the cloud itself, boosting productivity.

Utopia is optimized for prompt-based application development using generative AI.

Utopia allows for the updating of running applications through interaction with AI, revolutionizing the development process.

Utopia's serverless cloud environment promises a significant increase in productivity, potentially 25x or more.

Transcripts

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

um so uh hi everyone thanks for coming

uh today we're going to talk about um

Reinventing uh Enterprise and government

computing

um so Utopia is actually a new technical

acronym stands for Unstoppable

tamperproof open platform for

independent

autonomy and it's a software technology

for creating serverless clouds so these

are private clouds that the owner

controls um they can be run over big

Tech clouds for

convenience or they can be run over Home

Country Hardware where sovereignty is

important and you can build on these

clouds um and there's also an app store

so you can uh install you know

applications directly from that so these

serverless clouds uh have

gamechanging

advantages uh the first one is that when

you build build on these

clouds your applications are safe uh

without firewalls and anti-

malware which is a big step forward in

in this um time of cyber crime uh when

you build your IT personnel are vastly

more productive because it's a

serverless model your software systems

cannot crash and you build without

vendor lock in which is a big issue for

a lot of uh corporations and governments

so you might be wondering uh where this

came from uh Utopia is actually not a

new technology it's it's the product of

more than a thousand person years of R&D

effort um already it's a spin out from

the internet computer project it's been

uh developed over almost 10 years and

it's uh proven in in in production and

battle

hardened so uh Utopia addresses the um

biggest challenges in in it today and

the two we'll focus on today are cyber

crime and IT personnel

so next year 2025 the global cost of

cyber crime will pass $1 trillion um

something like 30% of the GDP of the

United States it's an absolutely

extraordinarily costly thing and is

causing uh you know growing societal

economic and National interest on

meanwhile uh we spend about $2 trillion

a year on IT personnel so the

productivity of Our IT personnel is is

also very

important so uh this is one way of

understanding uh

Utopia our future Cloud prap platforms

uh need resilience against data center

failure so even big Tech clouds glitch

and go down because there's a problem

with the um underlying data centers and

for example a AWS went down a couple of

years ago and the the New York subway

stopped working along with a bunch of

other stuff but there also um uh other

new and growing risks um cyber attacks

State sabotage um I'm sure you've all

been following current events and things

like

terrorism

so we can do much better than this and

uh I want you to imagine a new era of

resilience

where the cloud is Unstoppable and

tamperproof and hosted applications are

also Unstoppable and Tampa proof

and this is something we can do today

with Utopia

technology so uh Utopia takes a

different approach and it creates what

what's known as bantine fault tolerant

serverless clouds using mathematical

replication so

it's mathematically copying Computing

data across several data centers uh with

the result that these clouds are not

vulnerable to um the failure of a subset

of the data centers

involved and even better than that these

clouds are also not vulnerable to

malicious

insiders um who are compromising a

subset of the data centers involved

now it turns out that this approach also

solves for ransomware which is probably

the one of the most disruptive um cyber

attacks around at the moment you

probably heard that um London hospitals

are recently cancelling surgeries I

think they cancel like 800 surgeries

because of a ransomware attack soles for

ransomware uh penetration and data

exfiltration which is when you know a

cyber attacker um steals sensitive data

and so the approach that Utopia takes to

cyber security um makes cyber security

systems are necessary within the field

of cloud and the applications that

you're running on it if if you're trying

to get a handle on on how this works

perhaps the simplest way of explaining

it is that the entire Cloud runs inside

of a virtual execution environment which

is a bit like the virtual machine that

JavaScript in your web browser runs

within and you know the JavaScript can't

escape the web browser and code Escape

within this cloud is impossible and then

this virtual execution environment is

run within a mathematical Network

protocol so um you can create uh private

serverless clouds over Big Tex cloud

services for convenience if you want um

in addition to them being uh tamperproof

and Unstoppable another Advantage is

that you escape vendor lockin so when

you run a Utopia Cloud over big Tech

cloud services you get that resilience

um but you're not locked in you can add

and remove the underlying compute nodes

that create the cloud without

interrupting the cloud or the

applications that it

hosts you can also create uh serverless

Sovereign clouds uh using Home Country

Hardware and this means that you don't

need to surrender your data to a big tag

cloud service and the jurisdiction of

that big Tech cloud service and this is

something that's increasingly important

for governments around the world they're

mandating that data is kept within the

country and private data centers but you

know uh rolling your own cloud is not a

good idea this is complex

technology um you can also create mobile

local area uh secure Unstoppable Cloud

platforms and this means you can do

things like run uh sophisticated it

applications Within in field

environments where there may not even be

an internet

connection in this case you know the the

nodes the compute nodes would be mobile

devices something like a mobile phone

and you know the connect in a sort of

local era

Network

um uh in developing markets some

sometimes you know the terrestrial links

between data centers aren't that

reliable AR that good um but you can

bootstrap these kind of serverless Cl

clouds in in developing

markets um with the help of

starink and I think this is going to be

another game Cher for um it in those

markets so um you can obviously build on

these serverless clouds but there's also

an App Store with uh pre-made services

and these are actually coming from the

web 3 space but have been repurposed for

Enterprise and government environments

so um three I'll mention to is a new um

project but you know the app store's

already growing uh Pass Key based

identity um secure file sharing that's a

big one like how do you store your files

how do you make sure that only the right

people can access them and and messaging

like a lot of governments and uh many

corporations would like to use slack for

productivity purposes but they want to

keep the the data under their own

control ideally local um this gives you

an instant solution to to that need um

but you can you can build and host uh

almost anything uh any any online system

or service you can imagine uh you can

run AI models on on on Utopias um at the

moment you can't quite run a large

language model like LV 3 or or mistro

but um that's going to change in next

few weeks and uh you can also host

securely host digital assets on Utopias

and process them like data so you can

um write code that runs on a Utopia that

interacts with external

blockchains and custodies the assets on

those blockchains calls their smart

contracts and so on and uh use something

called chain key uh technology even if

somebody gains access to some of the

hardware that's being used to create the

Utopia they still can't steal the assets

so you know the need to manage

uh digital assets is is is going to be

is is growing and and just just like the

need to run AI That's you know secure

and resilient um because AI is going to

have access to all of our most sensitive

data so it's not just about you know

what the AI can do it's also about can

you protect the data that the AI is is

is using because AI is going to be a

Honeypot for hackers and can you can you

really allow yourself to become

dependent on this AI because

um you know obviously traditional it

infrastructure goes down isn't very

resilient but you can solve that by

running your AI model on a Utopia

serverless

Cloud um there's a lot of changes uh so

begins to touch on productivity so

traditionally you know scaling uh

applications is is an onerous task I

I've been uh tack now for a long time um

coding like more than 40 years and so on

and you know generally when you're

working with a current it stack scaling

is a pain uh you know you're redesigning

rewriting um installing new components

reconfiguring

redeploying and um Utopia provides you

with a different way of addressing

scaling of applications you basically

scale the uh Utopia Cloud itself which

of course involves U you know highly

standardized and friction free automated

processes um

a kind of example um of of of why you

know it boosts productivity so much uh

with Utopia um it focuses on on on what

um not not how so on Utopia applications

consist only of the user experience you

know what you see in your web browser

pure business logic and and

data and so if you compare if you got an

application on the current it stack

that's say 10,000 lines of code and

configuration um on on Utopia typically

that'll be substantially less than 2,000

lines of code so that directly drives

productivity five 5x productivity to

build

something but also when you build on

Utopia um you you don't you build

without a web server without an

application server without a database

without a file system without caching

servers without cyber security systems

so everything just within this secure

Unstoppable um environment and basically

means the systems admin can can be

almost negligible compared to the

maintenance and administration of a

system built on current

it so the last thing I'll touch on is

that uh Utopia and the environment that

it provides um for for building is

optimized for 100% prompt-based

uh application development using general

of AI so if you follow me uh there'll be

a demo in a few weeks where you'll see

somebody using a very simple interface

to interact with AI to build uh an

enterprise

system that stores manages searches

updates and so on data with a nice user

experience um creating creating that

Enterprise application uh just using

promp based engineering what's very very

cool uh about the way Utopia works is

that the same uh generative AI can

update the running application so you'll

be able to interact with the AI create

your enterprise

system

uh put some data into it play around

with it have some meetings decide what

needs to

change and then you'll be able to update

that running out application with the

data

inside um and quite literally you'll be

able to interact with the AI to update

the

application and

refresh the link in your web browser and

hey Presto your Enterprise or government

application has been

updated um which of course is a big

Revolution and you know um think in the

coming years you're going to see some

big changes you know we're all used to

using uh

standardized services on big Tech clouds

and things like that because we can't

can't develop them ourselves to begin

with this technology will be used to uh

you know meet ad hoc needs and develop

simple information systems but as it

continues to mature people are going to

be developing you know very

sophisticated um Enterprise and

government applications that do exactly

precisely what they want that they can

they can update just by interacting with

an AI and they're going to run this on

you know private Sovereign serverless

clouds where they maintain um control of

the data and um I put this in 25x

productivity but it's probably even more

than that uh that's the Revolution

coming and and Utopia is designed uh

specifically to to support that if you

want an intuition why that's possible of

course in the serverless cloud

environment everything the entire

application end to endend is just code

there's no like components like web

servers and databases you have to

install and configure but yeah this is

this is um going to be just as

revolutionary as

having systems that you know can't be

hacked and never go down um okay thank

you uh you can follow me on X I'm

increasingly talking about Utopia um

there's not much on utopia.com but

monitor it there's a access to a

slightly ex extended version of this

deck thanks

[Applause]