What is Redundancy?

Redundancy refers to the unnecessary excess of an element. It’s a broad concept that encompasses numerous fields, including computing, communications, and crypto. Redundancy can describe additional information or features that may not be necessary beyond the potential possibility to take over if the initial feature malfunctions or fails.

Given the range of examples of redundancy, attempts to list all of them can themselves be redundant. Some of the common instances of redundancies experienced in the everyday life are:

• Computing – unused extra storage space available on computers. In this case, the redundancy acts as a security measure to ensure that the system does not run out of storage in case of technical failure;
• Networks – additional pathways connecting the nodes. The duplicates are established to ensure that the network traffic does not experience interferences even if the network encounters issues;
• Communications – additional channels that are used to ensure data security as it travels via different paths;
• Datacenter design – extra servers. Additional systems are established to keep running if the first one goes down.

As seen in the examples, redundancies are often relied upon as failsafe technologies. They ensure that the processes are steadily maintained even if the primary features encounter any problems that could disrupt the service.

Benefits of Redundancy

Redundancy can be a helpful feature to increase system productivity and consequently improve financial performance. Companies that rely on redundancy as a security measure often provide more reliable services and maintain a good reputation in the market. Therefore, using redundancy measures can help companies grow their clientele and increase revenue.

Redundant systems require more hardware resources like processors to improve the system capabilities and function more smoothly. This can decrease the possibility of lag for the users. A redundant system can overtake some of the network load in case the computer system is overloaded and help maintain a steady service without any delays.

As a failsafe tool, redundancy can help avoid system issues if the server crashes and the system data is corrupted or erased during a failure. Redundant systems can be used to synchronize backup and ensure that as much of the lost data can be recovered as possible.

Blockchain Redundancy and Fault Tolerance

Blockchain essentially functions as a distributed ledger. It is used to store transaction data that is considered immutable – it cannot be modified after verification. This data can then be accessed and viewed by all members of the blockchain networks.

To ensure that the data is accurate and its legitimacy is agreed upon by the network nodes, the blockchain uses a consensus mechanism as means of verification. The redundancy is created by providing each network member with a copy of the blockchain record, thus ensuring all data is valid throughout the system.

Thanks to the redundancy of data, blockchains are considered to be highly fault-tolerant. The downside of this trait is the massive requirement for storage space across the network. Creating transaction copies for all participants of the chain requires each node to use up more storage space and computational resources.