It's no secret that IBM wants to be a dominant player in blockchain technology, and the company has committed serious resources in hopes of achieving that goal. But Big Blue recently announced an initiative aimed at creating an ecosystem of companies working with blockchain, with the idea being that such cohesion will benefit all parties. Here are the details from IBM's announcement:
The blockchain ecosystem program is designed for innovators looking to build real networks -- venture capitalists (VCs), start-ups, systems integrators (SI), independent software vendors (ISV) and enterprise developers. To support these diverse organizations, IBM will provide education and tools aimed to reduce the time required to go from idea to execution. IBM blockchain professionals will hold “office hours” via the Hyperledger Fabric Slack channel providing support to developers and help with troubleshooting. This is in addition to the courses and learning modules for business users and developers already available on developerWorks. These will be augmented with code libraries, smart contract templates and tools currently in development to speed the creation of blockchain apps.
These programs are designed to support the Linux Foundation Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 and the IBM Blockchain platform which is expected to transform the way blockchain networks transact, opening up new possibilities for development. The Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 will provide a modular approach, much like the network-of-networks model of the Internet.
A number of companies have already jumped on board with IBM's blockchain ecosystem. They include Cloudsoft, EY, Everledger, Gilding Eagle, HACERA, The Hive, IntellectEU and others. (Check out IBM's full announcement for details on which aspects of blockchain each company specializes in.)
IBM's announcement reinforces Constellation Research's view of how valuable consortiums are when it comes to major research and development efforts, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Steve Wilson. (An excerpt of Wilson's recent report on blockchain R&D can be found at this link.)
Aron Dutta, IBM's head of blockchain, noted at Constellation's Connected Enterprise conference in October that "mistakes will be made" when it comes to blockchain, Wilson adds. "So early adopters of blockchain tech need to be in a big team, with resources and expertise and scientific skills," he says. "This is rocket science. But there is so much snake oil out there."
"We could also observe that IBM's continuing development in this market is cleverly building on its early participation in the Hyperledger consortium," Wilson adds.
IBM has announced a raft of privacy-related blockchain managed services and we will continue to see innovations in that area, Wilson says: "A lot of medium-term distributed ledger offerings will boil down to new data protection and management services. The famed 'consensus" properties of blockchain that people are excited about, really mean new types of 'democratic' assurances about the state of a database or a ledger. When there are multiple stakeholders it's tricky. Financial services, big pharma, supply chain players are inspired to look for efficient new ways to manage shared data."
"I think in many instances the classic blockchain will be seen to be a bad fit because it doesn't hybridize easily," Wilson adds. So as distributed ledger technology research progresses, we may see the internal workings of the ledger simplify, he says. "Often just a database engine will do the job."
The most important things surrounding blockchain technology as it evolves will include permissions management, advanced encryption, format-preserving encryption, zero knowledge access controls and secure hosting, Wilson predicts. "These are the sorts of high tech services which most businesses should be buying—from, for example, IBM—rather than building," he says. "I reckon what we call 'distributed ledgertechnologies may morph into a broader basket of managed cryptography and financial engineering services."
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