Please describe your proposed solution

The consumer perspective: Currently there is a vast degree of under utilized storage hardware among both the company's enterprise customers as well as the company datacenters. This inefficiency presents an opportunity to maximize hardware use by monetizing unused capacities through Iagon. Additionally, The company has a global network of cloud service users who are not exposed to the benefits that a decentralized network can provide such as lower costs, increased data safety, security and privacy, and custom data management solutions for enhanced data transparency and compliance. Iagon’s Private Distributed Cloud Service (PDCS) will demonstrate a proof of concept together with the company where we will develop a pilot application to install on the company servers (provided by either the company or their enterprise users. This means demonstrating an app that could increase the supply side with more storage for the Iagon cloud network)

The enterprise perspective: PDCS presents a competitive alternative to centralized cloud services, which often have high premiums for storage and bandwidth. By leveraging it, enterprises can achieve significant cost savings, as it maximizes the efficiency of underutilized hardware and optimizes resource allocation. This directly enhances profit margins by reducing overhead costs and monetizing idle storage capacities.

Additionally, PDCS provides advanced features that central services typically lack, such as the elimination of Central Points of Failure and the flexibility to customize storage solutions. Enterprises can tailor redundancy levels, manage bandwidth availability in different regions, and utilize compliance tools to control data residency—ensuring full alignment with global regulatory requirements. Altogether, PDCS offers a robust solution that enables enterprises to deliver more cost-effective, compliant, and resilient cloud services while driving profitability through efficient use of existing infrastructure.

If the Proof of Concept app is successful, the next step would be to collaborate with the company on making a white-labeled cloud storage solution for the company laptop users. This would give millions of users access to the Iagon Network (PDCS), installed as a default on all the company laptops. This software would utilize the infrastructure of the company enterprise users.

Another direction with the company could be with idle computing power, both for GPU and CPU.

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

The proposed solution will onboard the Fortune 500 company to a proof of concept with Iagon, using Iagon’s Private Distributed Cloud Service (PDCS) on the Cardano blockchain. This collaboration will drive increased traffic, utilization, and awareness for Cardano, demonstrating its capabilities in real-world, enterprise-scale applications. Should the company adopt the PDCS app after a successful pilot, it could catalyze a significant, ongoing impact on Cardano’s ecosystem, onboarding millions of users directly while establishing a channel for continued and lasting growth.

The PDCS also offers a versatile framework that can be adopted for other industries that handle sensitive data and require rigorous compliance. Beyond this pilot, sectors such as healthcare, finance, and legal could benefit from PDCS’s compliance-ready features. For instance, PDCS aligns with HIPAA standards in healthcare, ISO certifications in finance, and document auditability in legal practices, showcasing its adaptability to diverse enterprise needs. These examples highlight just a few of the countless ways PDCS can support enterprises across industries and display how this technology can serve a pivotal role in establishing enterprise use cases and adoption for the Cardano blockchain and ecosystem.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

1. Track Record: Iagon has a working cloud storage solution on the Cardano Blockchain with 6.5 Petabyte of storage and 482 storage nodes as of writing this proposal. The company has delivered solutions such as Ledgerflow and have demonstrated pilots such as for cloud compute as well as the Cyclone hardware device.
2. Team: Our team consists of experienced developers and experts in the field of blockchain and reputation systems. We have a proven track record of delivering high-quality projects with a strong focus on trust and accountability. Team co-founders include: Dr. Navjit Dhaliwal (has led 3 successful startups, increased revenue over 3 years from 0 NOK to 10 million NOK), Dr. Rohit Gupta (former director of technology for Expedia, currently a senior manager at Google, wrote thesis in decentralized compute in 2005), Dr. Claudio Lima (former CTO at Huawei in east asia, currently educates governments and enterprises on Blockchain architecture) and Dr. Elad Harison (AI/machine learning expert, economics professor).
3. Communication and Engagement: Iagon has demonstrated regular updates on our company blog, discord as well as twitter updates and spaces. We will continue to update the community and allow for engagement and questions on the proof of concept app if this project gets funded.

The success of the project can be measured using several key indicators:

1. Systems onboarded: Test a variety of the company systems for the app functionality in successfully sharing storage or renting storage from the PDCS.
2. Data migration rate: Measure volume of data migrated from traditional storage to the decentralized platform.
3. Uptime: Ensure the proof of concept app is stable and has a high availability when the devices are on.
4. Revenue Creation: Track the value add and profit margins that the company experiences from providing their underutilized hardware to the Iagon network.
5. Cost efficiency: Track how the proof of concept app gives income to users providing cloud storage and how it lowers costs for users who purchase cloud storage from Iagon compared to other alternatives.
6. Compliance: Demonstrate that the proof of concept app is in compliance with regulations in the regions the app is deployed and on the devices and with the licenses the company has for their devices.
7. Security: Check for vulnerabilities in the proof of concept app and ensure that the app is safe to use across the different company devices. Note this will also include another proposal that will audit the architecture.

By monitoring and analyzing these indicators throughout the project's lifecycle, the success and effectiveness of the project can be evaluated, allowing for adjustments, improvements, and further development to meet the evolving needs of the company through the proof of concept app.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

Sharing the outputs and results of the project is crucial for transparency, collaboration, and knowledge dissemination within the Cardano ecosystem. Here are some plans to share the outputs and results:

1. Documentation: Manual for the proof of concept app that the company users will have available to utilize the app.
2. Data redundancy and distribution: Statistics on how the proof of concept app increased data redundancy and distribution of storage.
3. Data on uptime, number and type of the company systems onboarded: Statistics on how many systems were onboarded, what type and the uptime statistics.
4. Compliance framework: Document on how the solution is in compliance with the company device licenses and across different jurisdictions that will be distributed with the proof of concept app.

By adopting these approaches, the project can effectively share its outputs, results, and progress with the Cardano community and showcase where Iagon is in onboarding the company users to the Cardano network through Iagons decentralized storage solutions.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal is to collaborate with the company to understand what they need across multiple company devices and across regions with different licensing and regulatory requirements. By doing this we hope to onboard the company to the Cardano blockchain network through Iagon Private Cloud Storage Solutions.

What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1: Infrastructure Design and Initial Alignment

Objective:

Establish foundational infrastructure and ensure compatibility with the Partner company’s systems. This involves providing architectural designs, network topology options, sequence flow diagrams, and aligning initial goals with stakeholders.

Outputs and Acceptance Criteria:

• Infrastructure Outlining: Initial storage and network configurations and technical specifications have been defined. Architecture diagrams and sequence flows have been created.
• Stakeholder Approval: Initial project goals documented and signed off by key stakeholders. Key project roles and communication paths identified and agreed upon.
• Public Communication: Publish a project launch announcement summarizing the pilot’s goals and anticipated value, creating early awareness.

Milestone 2: Compliance and Security Review, Deployment Planning, KPI definitions

Objective:

Conduct a compliance and security review to meet data regulations and the company’s internal policies. This includes detailed documentation to ensure robust protection and adherence to industry standards. Research methods of enterprise app deployment that will work for the PDCS. Determine metrics/KPI to measure reduced operational costs and other benefits.

Outputs and Acceptance Criteria:

• Compliance Documentation: Detailed report verifying that all regulatory requirements for the initial prototype are either met or what open items need to be addressed.
• Deployment Strategy: Stakeholders have agreed on initial deployment mechanism and configuration rollout and update strategy.
• Public Communication: Issue an update focusing on Iagon’s commitment to security and regulatory compliance, reinforcing trust and credibility.

Milestone 3: System Integration and Functional Testing

Objective:

Integrate PDCS prototype with a subset of the company's computers or servers and conduct functional testing to ensure stability, performance, and operational reliability, making adjustments as needed for optimal function.

Outputs and Acceptance Criteria:

• Integration Confirmation: Successful system integration documented, with evidence of working interaction between systems.
• Functional Test Results: Completion of functional testing, confirming system stability and readiness for broader use.
• Define Metrics Collection Methods: Define and implement mechanisms to collect usage metrics, costs etc. to measure project value throughout the pilot's implementation lifecycle and beyond.
• Public Communication: Publish a technical blog or case study outlining key integration achievements, signaling technological readiness to stakeholders.

Milestone 4: Test Data Migration and Define DR testing approach

Objective:

Migrate test data from traditional storage to PDCS for long-term prototype testing and verification of data residency adherence. Determine DR (Disaster Recovery) testing strategy and procedures

Outputs and Acceptance Criteria:

• Migration Verification: Have early testers confirm access to and validity of migrated data.
• User Feedback: Collect feedback from early users on system performance post-migration regarding performance and overall user experience.
• Public Communication: Share an update showcasing efficiency improvements and user experience insights, highlighting performance benefits for future clients

Milestone 5: Rollout of Pilot implementation

Objective:

Equip the company’s users to fully utilize PDCS through structured rollout and training where needed. Implement agreed upon deployment strategy and collect usage metrics.

Outputs and Acceptance Criteria:

• User and Administrator Documentation: Guides and training resources delivered to initial users and IT administrators
• Pilot Deployment: Rolling out the program to a predetermined segment of servers/computers (for storage nodes) and end users (for storage usage).
• Adoption Metrics: Measure usage, throughput and operator and user satisfaction
• Public Communication: Highlight onboarding success through a blog post

Final Milestone: Pilot Evaluation and Strategic Roadmap

Objective:

Complete a final assessment of the pilot’s performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency, using insights to prepare a roadmap for broader deployment or scaling.

Outputs and Acceptance Criteria:

• Performance Report: Comprehensive evaluation of cost savings, compliance, and system stability.
• Scalability Analysis: Documented analysis on resource requirements and potential for broader deployment.
• Roadmap Proposal: Strategic roadmap with recommendations for scaling and long-term adoption.
• Public Communication: Announce pilot results and future plans, emphasizing successful outcomes and next steps for potential expansion.

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

1. Navjit Dhaliwal, CEO
2. Holger Mesiats, CTO
3. Nils, Project Lead
4. Mark, Full Stack Engineer
5. Quinn, Smart Contract Engineer

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

The following budget breakdown provides an overview of the anticipated costs for the project, categorized by key areas of expenditure.

This budget outlines the allocation of funds in ADA, with the ADA amounts calculated at a rate of 1 ADA = 0.3 USD.

The breakdown ensures comprehensive support across project coordination, IT logistics, development, integration, and contingency, designed to maintain operational efficiency and facilitate seamless project execution, with a reserve for unforeseen expenses.

Successful execution of this proposal will require close collaboration between Iagon and the Fortune 500 company, with dedicated teams from both sides focused on development and integration. This joint effort will significantly accelerate the pilot, ensuring that all technical and compliance requirements are met efficiently. Iagon will also seek acceptance from Catalyst to disclose the identity of the Fortune 500 company, allowing for transparency in auditability while adhering to the terms of existing NDAs.

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Iagons cloud services utilize the Cardano Blockchain for access layer, fees and rewards.

This pilot will bring significant attention to Cardano and demonstrates enterprise interest in the adoption of Cardano and the innovative services building on it.

Further, if the Proof of Concept app is successful it could have a significant impact on the Cardano ecosystem by adding millions of devices paying for storage fees through the Cardano blockchain. It would also demonstrate to other enterprise companies that Cardano has decentralized infrastructure apps such as Iagon’s Private Distributed Cloud Services that allows them to whitelabel and onboard to Cardano seamlessly while enjoying the benefits of the safety, compliance, decentralization and cost reductions of Iagon and the Cardano blockchain.