IBM Blockchain Services — Opportunities and Basics
By Blokkx Ltd. on Altcoin Academy
Blokkx Ltd. November 2019
IBM also offers the IBM Blockchain Platform with its Blockchain Services. With this platform, you can set up your blockchain infrastructure in your company. For this, IBM relies on the well-known open-source solution Hyperledger-Fabric. We give an overview.
Since 2016 IBM offers services around the introduction of Blockchain in the company. This service also includes cloud services with which companies can set up their platforms for Blockchain. Developers are also supported accordingly. The focus of IBM Blockchain is on companies that want to set up a blockchain infrastructure but do not have enough know-how themselves.
IBM Blockchain at a glance
The IBM Blockchain Platform uses the open-source solution Hyperledger-Fabric. The Linux Foundation hosts it. Hyperledger is a business-capable platform that enables the entire lifecycle of a blockchain network between multiple organizations. IBM was involved in the development of Hyperledger. So if companies take advantage of IBM’s blockchain capabilities, they will use technologies that are already established in the marketplace.
To deploy Hyperledger-Fabric, companies have the choice of multiple deployment options. The user can take place in the own computing center On-Premise), or over the Cloud. IBM’s technologies are already being used by many companies, including large companies such as Walmart and Nestlé. The companies are using the IBM Food Trust Platform. This platform is a project designed to track food throughout its lifecycle. In addition to Walmart and Nestlé, the French supermarket chain Carrefour and Unilever also use this platform. Other companies are now also using the blockchain platform.
IBM also provides APIs for its Blockchain Services, which developers can use to integrate Blockchain technology into their applications. Security is also essential in this area. The IBM Blockchain Platform offers the security category FIPS140–2 Level 4. Of course, IBM itself does not have any access to the data stored in the IBM Blockchain Platform by companies.
IBM Blockchain Platform for developers
IBM offers an extension for the development of IBM Blockchain technologies with Visual Studio.
IBM also supports developers in developing applications for blockchain deployments. IBM Blockchain Services has its area for developers for this purpose. The focus here is also on providing easy access to an enterprise blockchain test environment for several months. Even here based on the open-source framework Hyperledger Fabric, besides a test environment, different tools and modules are available, which can be used for the development. This area also gives developers access to the various functions of IBM Blockchain Platform Enterprise Plan. Code examples on GitHub and the open-source technology Hyperledger Composer can also be used in this way.
IBM also offers an extension for Visual Studio on its developer side so that developers can develop applications based on the IBM Blockchain Platform and for Hyperledger-Fabric directly from the Microsoft development environment. The extension is available free of charge. On the Github page of the extension, you can also find questions, comments, and answers to problems.
Constantly new functions in the Blockchain Platform
IBM continues to expand the platform. More and smaller companies are also coming into IBM’s focus here. So far, they have rarely relied on IBM’s solutions, as they were geared more towards large companies. With new functions that will be introduced in summer of 2019, IBM also wants to convince smaller companies to rely on IBM Blockchain Services.
Furthermore, the platform is based on Hyperledger Fabric, since summer on the version 1.4.x. The functions of the IBM Blockchain Platform therefore generally correspond to the tasks that Hyperledger also offers. In the current version, developers can perform all necessary processes in a single interface. This version covers development, testing, and production. IBM also changed its pricing policy in June 2019. In the new version, companies pay for the resources they need.
IBM Blockchain is also available in AWS and Azure.
In the future, IBM’s Blockchain software will also be bookable individually. Instead of booking a complete package, companies can now also book individual services. In the current version, IBM Blockchain can also be used easily via public clouds such as Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure. IBM calls this possibility Multicloud. It is expected that this will increase the use of IBM blockchain technology as many companies provide their cloud solutions via Azure and AWS. Since IBM Blockchain can be used here, the other cloud services and their functions can also be integrated into Azure and AWS. Operation in private clouds is also possible, for example via Azure Stack. Smart Contract languages such as JavaScript, Java, and Go are also available in IBM Blockchain.
Conclusion
IBM is one of the leading companies in the blockchain sector. With the support of developers and the possibility to book the different IBM Blockchain services individually and make them available in Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS, it is to be expected that the distribution will continue. In addition, the implementation in AWS and Azure also allows the other cloud services of the two market leaders to be used. The Visual Studio extension also supports one of the most crucial development environments.
