Blockchain Business Innovation

Procurement in a Virtual Business World

By G C Network | May 8, 2018

Today, companies are undergoing a dramatic change in their environment and processes.  Many groups these changes together as “Digital Transformation,” but that industry buzzword fails to describe the essential details…

Taking the Canadian Insurance Industry Digital

By G C Network | May 6, 2018

“Digital disruption isn’t just for hip start-ups. Incumbents can not only compete but actually lead radical industry change if they pay attention to the way their business model is shifting…

#DigitalTransformation Means Hybrid IT and Multipath

By G C Network | April 24, 2018

The cloud is ubiquitous in today’s business world. This operational model is changing both data center operations and application development processes across multiple domains. As the manager of data centers…

Wasabi Hot Innovations Tour: How “Hot Cloud Storage” Changes Everything!

By G C Network | April 8, 2018

Digital storage requirements are growing exponentially. Budgets simply can’t keep up and existing Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), “Cloud First” Policy, Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) and Modernizing…

(Lack of) Patch Management Highlighted in US Congress

By G C Network | March 9, 2018

According to the former Equifax CEO’s testimony to Congress, one of the primary causes of this now infamous data breach was the company’s failure to patch a critical vulnerability in…

Experience “The Big Pivot”

By G C Network | February 21, 2018

Graeme Thompson, SVP/CIO Informatica The Big Pivot Podcast explores Digital transformation and its effect on every business in every industry. In exploring the business benefits of data-driven transformation, it is…

Innovation At The Seams

By G C Network | February 19, 2018

by Kevin L. Jackson & Dez Blanchfield Today’s real business innovation is happening at the seams of industries. Moreover, after listening to this podcast between Sanjay Rishi, GM Global Cloud…

Digital Transformation & Intelligent Automation

By G C Network | January 31, 2018

  By Kevin Jackson & Dez Blanchfield   Digital Transformation often needs Intelligent Automation. This type of change is the focus of a recent “Pioneers of Possible” podcast.  In discussion…

The Ascent of Object Storage

By G C Network | January 23, 2018

Over the past few years, the data storage market has changed radically. The traditional hierarchy of directories, sub-directories, and files referred to as file storage has given way to object…

The Deer Hunters: An Information Technology Lesson

By G C Network | January 14, 2018

by Kevin Jackson & Dez Blanchfield   In episode four of the “Pioneers Of Possible” podcast series, Dez Blanchfield caught up with  Max Michaels, General Manager, IBM Network Services in…

Is there more than bitcoin to blockchain?

 

Absolutely, because today’s blockchain is opening up a pathtowards the delivery of trusted online services.

 

To understand this statement, you need to see blockchain as more that it’s more famous bitcoin use case. As a fundamental digital tool, blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger for recording the history of transactions. If used in this fashion, it can enable transactional applications that can have embedded trust, accountability and transparency attributes. Instead of having a Bitcoin blockchain that is reliant on the exchange of cryptocurrencies with anonymous users on a public network, a Business blockchain can provide a permissioned network with known and verified identities. With this kind of transactional visibility, all activities within that network are observable and auditable by every network user. This end-to-end visibility, also known as shared ledgering, can also be linked to business rules and business logic that can drive and enforce trust, openness and integrity across that business network.  Application built, managed and supported through such an environment can now hold a verifiable pedigree with security built right in that can:
  • Prevent anyone – even root users and administrators – from taking control of a system;
  • Deny illicit attempts to change data or applications within the network; and
  • Block unauthorized data access by ensuring encryption keys can never be misappropriated.

 

From an industry vertical point of view, this approach can:
  • Give financial institutions an ability to settle securities in minutes instead of days;
  • Reduce manufacturer product recalls by sharing production logs with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and regulators; and
  • Help businesses of all types more closely manage the flow of goods and related payments with greater speed and less risk.

Innovators within just about any industry can build, run and manage their own business blockchain network. And even if the organization isn’t quite ready to do the heavy lifting, it can consume a blockchain service from companies like IBM.

 
Ready-made frameworks as also available from the Hyperledger Project, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. Available hyperledger business frameworks include:
  • Sawtooth – a modular platform for building, deploying, and running distributed ledgers that includes a consensus algorithm which targets large distributed validator populations with minimal resource consumption.
  • Iroha – a business blockchain framework designed to be for incorporation into infrastructural projects that require distributed ledger technology.
  • Fabric – a foundation for developing applications or solutions with a modular architecture that allows components, such as consensus and membership services, to be plug-and-play.
  • Burrow – a permissionable smart contract machine that provides a modular blockchain client with a permissioned smart contract interpreter built in part to the specification of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

 

If you’re team is looking to innovate and take a leadership position within your industry, business blockchainsmay be the perfect enhancement for your business focused application.
 
 

This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit ITBizAdvisor.

 

Cloud Musings

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