Rock Around the Blockchain with Dell Technologies

While almost everyone has heard of Bitcoin, the blockchain based crypto-currency, not everyone knows that blockchain, a distributed ledger system of technology, has applications far ranging beyond the wallet.

Many enterprise customers are experimenting with a new class of applications that insert transactions into a distributed ledger. As a result, they are looking at different ledger implementations in the form of blockchain. Companies like Microsoft, RedHat, and Fujitsu are participating in new enterprise blockchain initiatives, from Blockchain as a Service to secure data exchange networks.

However, the industry is struggling with the implementation of enterprise-class blockchain solutions. There are two primary challenges being tackled. The first issue is the selection of a blockchain, and the second issue is the integration of that blockchain into an existing IT architecture.

Starting in 2016, technology practitioners from across Dell Technologies, including Dell EMC, VMware, Pivotal and others, formed a Blockchain Interest Group (BIG), whose steering committee helps customers discover Dell’s blockchain capabilities.

Dell Fellow Steve Todd wrote about the Dell Technologies portfolio and blockchain for the 2018 Knowledge Sharing Competition, and won first place for his paper Rock Around the Blockchain with Dell Technologies. In this interview from Dell Technologies World, Todd discusses the the research that his group has done related to customer business uses for blockchain, as well as some of the challenges of implementing blockchain applications, particularly in mission-critical environments.

About the Author: Kate Hutchinson

Kate Hutchinson is an interdisciplinary marketer with a love of learning. She helps Dell EMC customers leverage community and social media to optimize their user experience and realize the full value of their technical training. With a decade of experience in B2B high tech marketing, Kate focuses on developing marketing strategies that incorporate social media and engagement marketing. Before joining the tech industry, she worked in higher education administration and fundraising. She earned her Master of Education at Suffolk University and her MBA from Simmons University, both in Boston, Massachusetts. Kate currently resides in Boston, and spends most of her free time watching classic Hollywood movies and reading history books.