Blockchain has been around for a few years now and has had a slow and steady rise up the technology hype cycle. For those not familiar with Blockchain it is viewed as the main technical innovation of bitcoin where it serves as the public ledger of all bitcoin transactions.
Many analysts believe that Blockchain will be a highly disruptive technology and could have a huge impact on the world economy. One of the main innovations that will drive the disruption is the ability to not only transfer information but also transfer value with its tamper proof distributed ledger architecture.
For more details about Blockchain, I’d recommend viewing these blogs and notes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain_(database)
Will Blockchain and de-centralized Applications Kill the Cloud? I don't think so. There is space for both to work together to create innovative solutions. Blockchain is a horizontal technology that has the potential to impact all industries and is complimentary to SAP’s Cloud and On Premise solution portfolio.
SAP’s Extensible Cloud Platform
There are many use cases for both cloud and Blockchain applications in the same way that there are use cases for both cloud and on premise applications.
Many on premise applications have shifted part of their processing into the cloud for various functions and workloads making them more hybrid applications. For example an SAP S/4 HANA on premise customer might decide to create a new application that leverages SAP FIORI as a Service through our SAP HANA Cloud Platform.
In a matter of hours or days a customer could now create a hybrid application. SAP has seen this trend growing and is making it easier for customers by providing online development environments such as the SAP HANA Cloud Platform (HCP) as well as integration technologies such as SAP HANA Cloud Integration (HCI).
How could Blockchain fit in with SAP’s Cloud Solutions?
There are many startups in the financial sector offering everything from alternative Crypto Currencies to payment systems. Many in the established financial sector are seeing Blockchain as a disruptor while others are now looking to see how they can leverage this technology to provide a safe and secure means to offer new services.
I see the same happening in the future with de-centralized applications such as Blockchain. There will be cases where there may be a transfer of value in a Peer to Peer Blockchain application that will then need to integrate with a back end system.
For Example
Bill is sitting in his office in Cleveland and needs to get to the airport. He could use a centralized car sharing solution such as Uber or he could use a New App built on Blockchain. This New App could be a Peer to Peer system that connects him directly with a driver in his area. This way neither the driver nor the passenger need to pay a fee to a centralized car sharing company making the transaction cheaper with less steps involved. The financial payment has been disrupted. No centralized system was touched. No fees were taken from a ride sharing app or a credit card company.
Now Bill needs to do his expenses. In this case his company uses SAP Concur for travel and expense management. So now he needs to copy his receipt and upload it into the system to get reimbursed.
This leaves a great opportunity open for an application developer to come in and build a cloud extension for Concur in HCP that retrieves the information from the Blockchain so when Bill goes into Concur his receipt is already waiting for him.
This is just a quick example of how Blockchain and the SAP Cloud can work together to provide a better customer experience.
So will Blockchain potentially disrupt how cloud applications are created and consumed? There is a good chance that it may as it becomes more widely adopted. But will Blockchain kill the cloud? I believe that it will not kill the cloud but rather it will allow people and companies to explore how a distributed ledger technology can extend or enhance a cloud solution to provide new forms of value to their customers.
Thanks,
Tony
Credits:
Deloitte Study on Blockchain in Financial Services: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ie/Documents/FinancialServices/IE_Cons_Blockchain_101...
Richie Etwaru on Blockchain in Healthcare:
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