By Michelle Javed
Summary
Sigea Cloud Labs deployed privacy-first cloud storage on Akash Network’s decentralized GPU infrastructure, achieving cost efficiency, zero-knowledge security, and performance at scale while proving that enterprise-grade infrastructure no longer requires choosing between control, transparency, and economics.
Breaking free from the hidden tax of centralized cloud storage
Sigea Cloud solves the problem of data exposure, surveillance, and loss of control caused by traditional centralized cloud providers. Most existing platforms scan user content, monetize metadata, impose artificial limits, and introduce security risks through centralized custody.
For privacy-conscious individuals, creators, professionals, journalists, developers, and organizations that require secure file storage and transfer without sacrificing usability or performance, traditional cloud providers present an impossible choice. Web3 builders and decentralized communities need censorship-resistant, verifiable, and trust-minimized cloud infrastructure that centralized providers cannot offer.
Before working with Akash, Sigea faced significant challenges with centralized infrastructure: high and unpredictable costs, limited scalability, vendor lock-in, and trust issues around data custody and operational transparency. Traditional cloud platforms also introduced performance bottlenecks and single points of failure that conflicted with the goal of building a privacy-first, decentralized cloud solution.
Legacy cloud providers rely on opaque pricing models, tiered services, and surprise egress fees that make forecasting difficult. Organizations managing massive project datasets face artificial service tiers and hidden access fees that transform storage from a predictable utility into an unpredictable liability with sudden pricing changes and penalties tied to data movement.
The structural advantage centralized providers cannot replicate
Sigea’s advantage is not price. It is trust and control. Traditional clouds are built on centralized access models where the provider can technically see, scan, or restrict customer data. Sigea is designed so users retain control of their files at all times. That trust model is structural and cannot be replicated by legacy providers without fundamentally changing how their businesses operate.
Even if AWS or Google Cloud reduced prices by 50%, they could not replicate a decentralized trust model without destroying the centralized control mechanisms that define their business architecture.
The team needed infrastructure that aligned with principles of decentralization, security, and resilience while remaining economically sustainable at scale.
THE SOLUTION
Building zero-knowledge architecture on reverse-auction infrastructure
Sigea Cloud Labs is a privacy-first, decentralized cloud storage and file transfer solution designed for maximum security, speed, and ease of use. Built for users who prioritize end-to-end encryption, Sigea Cloud eliminates traditional intermediaries and file size limits, ensuring that files stay private and secure from upload to download.
The solution removes weaknesses of centralized providers by delivering true client-side encryption, zero-knowledge storage, and decentralized infrastructure with no intermediaries.
Core infrastructure capabilities
Zero-Knowledge Encryption
Files are encrypted client-side so only the user controls access and decryption. The provider has no technical ability to access customer data.
No Middlemen or File Size Caps
Direct, peer-powered transfers and storage without gateway bottlenecks or arbitrary limits.
Cross-Platform Support
Available on major platforms including Android and iOS for seamless mobile use.
High Performance
Optimized for fast uploads and downloads with resilient delivery across networks.
Deploying production workloads on decentralized infrastructure
Sigea Cloud runs distributed backend services that support encrypted file storage, secure file transfer, metadata coordination, and application APIs. These workloads include:
- Storage orchestration services
- Encryption and access-control services
- Indexing and retrieval coordination
- High-throughput data handling for large file uploads and downloads
- Supporting infrastructure such as application gateways, monitoring services, and scaling components to ensure high availability, performance, and fault tolerance
Re-engineering Total Cost of Ownership through transparent pricing
By eliminating artificial service tiers and hidden access fees, Sigea turns storage from an unpredictable liability into a predictable operating expense. Organizations can plan, budget, and scale without worrying about sudden pricing changes or penalties tied to data movement.
Sigea is designed around transparent, usage-based costs that behave more like a utility. Organizations pay for what they use, without hidden penalties for accessing or moving their own data.
Akash’s reverse-auction marketplace eliminates the opaque pricing models, tiered services, and surprise egress fees that make forecasting difficult under traditional cloud providers.
Maintaining performance without centralized bottlenecks
In high-growth environments characterized by massive project datasets, Sigea’s distributed architecture on Akash maintains I/O performance and system reliability without the performance-ceiling traps of centralized providers.
Sigea is built to avoid the performance ceilings common in centralized systems. Instead of forcing all workloads through a single provider’s infrastructure, the architecture is designed to scale horizontally. This helps maintain consistent performance and reliability even as datasets grow.
Intentional design philosophy
Sigea is intentionally designed without a traditional SDK. The goal is to remove complexity and middlemen rather than introduce new layers of integration. The current focus is on making secure storage simple, user-controlled, and composable at the system level rather than exposing low-level programmatic control.
THE IMPACT
Proving decentralization delivers practical business value
By deploying on Akash, Sigea achieved meaningful cost efficiency compared to traditional cloud providers, along with improved flexibility and infrastructure transparency. The decentralized model allows the team to scale workloads dynamically without long-term vendor lock-in, while maintaining high availability and performance.
The deployment gained greater operational resilience by removing single points of failure and aligning infrastructure with privacy-first and trust-minimized architecture.
Key technical validation
One of the key milestones was successfully migrating core backend services to decentralized infrastructure while maintaining performance and reliability at scale. The team demonstrated the ability to handle large encrypted file transfers with consistent throughput and uptime, validating that privacy-first architecture can operate efficiently on decentralized cloud infrastructure. This has been a major technical validation for the platform and long-term roadmap.
Lessons learned
Building on Akash’s permissionless GPU marketplace taught the team how to design systems that are inherently more resilient, transparent, and aligned with user trust. The team learned to architect for fault tolerance and geographic distribution from the ground up, while optimizing performance and cost in an environment without centralized control.
Looking ahead
The next phase focuses on expanding platform capabilities and scaling adoption. Key milestones include:
- Continued optimization of performance and infrastructure
- New features for secure file sharing and collaboration
- Deeper mobile and cross-platform integrations
- Improved developer tooling and APIs
- Broader enterprise and organizational use cases
- Continuing to advance decentralized, privacy-first architecture
GET IN TOUCH
Learn more about deploying privacy-first infrastructure on decentralized compute at akash.network
