Blockchain is really about providing value to the enterprise. Architecting Enterprise Blockchain Solutions provides expert insight into enterprise blockchain understanding and direction for enterprise-focused sales team members who are both technical and nontechnical, systems engineers, application developers, and IT executives.

The competitive nature of the IT industry is constantly providing paths for enterprises, some of which provide value while others are mere distractions. This book aims to not only address the differences between technology distractions around blockchain technology but provide insight into why the technology is so disruptive to the “status quo” in sectors such as financial, government, and logistics.

As enterprise-focused professionals, we should focus on the opportunities that the disruptive nature of blockchain can provide, which entails everything from providing your customers direct value through cost savings to ensuring compliance requirements are met to providing a competitive edge. Blockchains are driving new business models in some sectors faster than others.

This book is not about cryptocurrency and how you can become rich trading Bitcoin or Dash. It is an enterprise-focused book on blockchain technology. The main focus of the book is on Hyperledger, R3 Corda, Quorum, Ripple, and Ethereum. A secondary focus is on other technologies that provide value as well such as off-chains like Blockstream or smaller blockchain projects such as Lisk or NEO that enterprises may be considering. The reality is that blockchains that utilize smart contracts provide immense value to enterprises when properly developed, planned, and implemented. I also cover in detail how to use IBM Blockchain Platform As A Service and AWS Blockchain Templates to drive your customers’ proof of concepts (PoCs) and production blockchains.

The topics covered will give you a solid grasp of blockchain technology, blockchain architecture, blockchain development, blockchain security, blockchain roles, and demand for blockchain expertise.

So, whether you're just learning about what blockchain technology is or you're deeply involved in a PoC for a Fortune 500 enterprise, learning about the disruptive nature of blockchain technology is the right move. Not only should you understand that blockchain technology is so disruptive, but that it is also becoming a competitive necessity. Your competitors are likely investing in blockchain training, blockchain professional services practices, blockchain PoCs, and even enterprise implementations.

To wrap up, blockchain is the locomotive going down the tracks; either you can jump in front of the train or you can jump on board. The question is, do you want to be enabled in blockchain or do you prefer to let your competition deal with this? The competitive nature of business is clearly driving the hundreds of millions in investments in the blockchain space, and this is showing no sign of slowing down. Contrary to what the bank CEOs say, blockchain is here to stay and will continue to disrupt their businesses.

Why You Should Read This Book

This book aims to be a reference as well as an inspiration to all IT-focused presales architects, systems engineers, application developers, sales executives, and even IT executives who are trying to understand where blockchain fits into their customer base or their own enterprises. Sales and professional services are all about driving revenue and providing value to your customer base. Blockchain technology, when correctly positioned, can do just this.

Application developers who are focused on understanding blockchain and how the technology translates into an application will benefit.

IT executives or IT analysts will certainly benefit from this book because they will understand how both the technical aspects and the business aspects of blockchain can drive value in their enterprises.

As a former presales engineer who has been involved in well over $100 million in documented transactions for companies such as 3PAR Data, HDS Federal (ViON), and Brocade Communications, I feel that this target group really needs to understand blockchain. The presales audience in some market segments needs to start envisioning where their customer base will go around this disruptive technology.

This book was written to address both the technical aspects of blockchain such as how to design and implement a blockchain and also the business aspects that the target audience needs to know such as competitive analysis, ROI/TCO, proof of concepts, and providing value to your customer base or your enterprise.

How This Book Is Structured

Architecting Enterprise Blockchain Solutions comprises the following chapters:

Chapter 1, “Introduction to Blockchain Technologies,” covers the basics of blockchain technology, the history of the blockchain, how blockchain compares to other technology platforms, how blockchains are deployed for enterprises, blockchain transactions and how they provide value, and why the blockchain is considered revolutionary.

Chapter 2, “Enterprise Blockchains: Hyperledger, R3 Corda, Quorum, and Ethereum,” covers enterprise blockchain specifically focused on the technical merits of the enterprise blockchain. The chapter also covers where the blockchain fits into the enterprise. Areas of focus will be around defining enterprise blockchains on Hyperledger, R3 Corda, Quorum, and Ethereum.

Chapter 3, “Architecting Your Enterprise Blockchain,” covers the use cases, best practices, integration, scalability, and security design considerations for each of the enterprise blockchains. The chapter focuses on architecting Hyperledger Fabric, R3 Corda, Quorum, and Ethereum blockchains and will provide several use cases for deploying the enterprise blockchains.

Chapter 4, “Understanding Enterprise Blockchain Consensus,” covers the most common consensus methods used for blockchains and distributed ledgers. The main focus of the chapter will be on enterprise blockchains such in the Hyperledger Framework, R3 Corda, Quorum, and Ethereum. We will also compare and contrast Bitcoin and Ethereum. From a historical perspective, it is important to understand how Bitcoin works and how the Bitcoin blockchain compares to other blockchains such as enterprise blockchains.

Chapter 5, “Enterprise Blockchain Sales and Solutions Engineering,” details selling blockchain solutions and services and dives into requirements gathering and identifying use cases for enterprise blockchains. The chapter provides a technical presales perspective on how to sell blockchain services and hardware. The chapter also covers conceptual and nonconceptual patterns and will cover the routine presales tasks such as RFPs, demos, whiteboards, readiness assessments, and proof of concepts. We will also review requirements gathering and establishing a use case for blockchain solutions.

Chapter 6, “Enterprise Blockchain Economics,” covers the opportunities around blockchains and distributed ledgers. The chapter provides significant insight into opportunities around cost control, cost reduction, and cost avoidance around customer use cases. We will discuss how blockchains and distributed ledgers can facilitate impressive total cost of ownership (TCO) scenarios and clearly improve return on investment (ROI). The chapter is focused on the economics around blockchains.

Chapter 7, “Deploying Your Blockchain on BaaS,” covers blockchain as a service from both a use case and implementation perspective. The first part of the chapter gives an overview of blockchain as a service market and serves as a concise guide of current BaaS platforms with the main benefits, features, and use cases they provide. I will also discuss how to use a BaaS for proof of concepts and demos, especially for presales-focused readers. Then the second part of the chapter is more technical and covers actually deploying your blockchain on a BaaS. I will walk you through deploying a blockchain on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM Cloud.

Chapter 8, “Enterprise Blockchain Use Cases,” covers some of the potential focus areas of enterprise blockchain use cases that can provide value to not only the organization but also their suppliers, customers, and partners. The chapter covers a few of the use cases that have been announced, along with their merits.

Chapter 9, “Blockchain Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), Privacy, and Legal Concerns.,” covers the various challenges around blockchain adoption that focus on the compliance, regulatory, and legal concerns. The chapter covers the more common focus areas and also discusses how blockchains can be an ideal platform for regulatory compliance because they establish a historically trusted audit trail that can be verified in real time.

Chapter 10, “Blockchain Development,” covers an overview of blockchain development to provide insight into the most common development languages, the best practices, and the blockchains they are used for. The chapter will focus mainly on the aspects of development around Ethereum, Hyperledger, Corda, and Quorum blockchains as well as the development languages they are built on such as Solidity, Go, and Jotlin. There will be some examples provided and, of course, resources to learn more.

Chapter 11, “Blockchain Security and Threat Landscape,” covers many of the vulnerabilities that blockchain can be exposed to. The main focus will be on Ethereum, Corda, Hyperledger, and Quorum and their security concerns. The chapter will also cover what hashing is and how it plays into your blockchain security as well as what encryption and decryption are with blockchains. Compliance best practices, risk assessments, and risk mitigation will also be covered in detail. The chapter will also cover what vulnerabilities are common in blockchain technologies, discuss fundamental IT best practices as well as smart contracts security concerns, and discuss issues such as smart contract legal enforcement and legal prose. Lastly, the chapter covers critical concerns over Ethereum, Corda, Hyperledger, and Quorum that can affect aspects of the blockchains such as security, privacy, and availability.

Chapter 12, “Blockchain Marketplace Outlook,” covers the growing demand that has been clearly documented by the increased use cases around blockchain technologies and the consistent documented hiring around blockchain expertise. We also look at how blockchain got its start and where we are now in the technological evolution. We will review a timeline to gain an understanding of newer technologies that enhance the blockchain marketplace. I will also cover aspects of how a sales organization can get enabled and the determined demand for blockchain requirements. Lastly, I will cover the most common certification and training opportunities to help grow your business, knowledge base, and enablement toward blockchain.

How to Contact the Author

If you have questions or comments or would like to find out more about Myblockchainexperts, please reach out to me on LinkedIn or feel free to email [email protected]. I will respond promptly to all reasonable requests. Thank you.