What comes to your mind when you hear the word blockchain? Do you think of it as just one of the latest technology trends, or a fancy buzzword? Do you associate it with cryptocurrencies? Have you considered that it may be a technology that has the power to revolutionize the way businesses and entire industries operate?

Blockchain is perhaps best known as the technology that supported cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins and Ethereum as far back as 2008. Today, 10 years later, it has emerged as the modern world’s most powerful technology. Blockchain is rapidly becoming the go-to solution for business and industries that use mainframes for transaction processing, or other critical operational workloads.

Why Blockchain?

Blockchain has several advantages for businesses that have a complex value chain with a large number of key participants.

• Time Saving: Your business transactions and operating workflows can be conducted in near real-time.
• Cost Saving: Your business networks can eliminate intermediaries and scale up easily.
• Risk Mitigation: Your business transactions become highly secure, yet verifiable and auditable.
• Innovation: Blockchain’s potential scope and scale allows you to ideate and create new business models, restructure existing business networks and redefine your profit pools.

Do We Need Blockchain?

As a CTO or key decision maker of your business, you must consider whether your organization needs blockchain. Are you looking at speeding up processes, improving data consistency, and enhancing trust and transparency? Are your existing systems incapable of addressing these requirements? Then blockchain is a great solution for your business. However, try not to be tempted to use blockchain only  to use trending technology.

Blockchain has been successfully implemented in industries such as financial services, retail, insurance, manufacturing, and even government entities. It has found application in a wide range of workflows and transactions, including trade finance, cross currency payments, claims processing, asset registration, medical records, supply chains, and loyalty programs, among others.

Blockchain on the z14 Mainframe – An Exciting Use Case

Blockchain is about a single version of the truth, one that remains untampered and transparent for all its stakeholders. For this, it needs a robust technology environment, and this is where the IBM z14 mainframe comes in.

• Strong Infrastructure Backbone: Among the most scalable and securable next-generation mainframes, IBM Z creates one of the strongest infrastructure backbones for blockchain. The pervasive encryption capabilities embedded in z/OS and Linux on Z, particularly on the latest generation systems such as z14, promise an environment that is secure, confidential, auditable, reliable and scalable. Since IBM Z (both z/OS and Linux on Z) meet some of the most stringent requirements across industries, it is considered as the gold standard in the secure technology environment.
• Functional Features and Compatibility: IBM Z offers optimized communication for blockchain peer-to-peer nodes. While IBM Z high-speed networks allows fast access to co-located business data, your ledgers remain separate and secure due to the isolated partitions in memory. The benefit for Blockchain peers is not just high speed, but also reduced latency, and higher
• Exploring Blockchain’s Potential: IBM Z availability and vertical scalability offer unmatched processing power to explore blockchain’s potential for newer transactions and operations. The robust infrastructure provided by IBM Z is an ideal environment for blockchain development, testing, and production.

Revolutionize Your Business Transactions

Explore whether your business will benefit from the use of blockchain and IBM Z servers through Glass House Systems (GHS). We have 25 years of experience in cross-industry IT solutions and are one of the top resellers of mainframe across North America.

Contact us to learn more or leave a comment below for more information on blockchain and IBM Z solutions. Our technical experts are eager to work with you and help you find the IT infrastructure solutions that best enable your desired business outcomes.

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