Wondering if blockchain is the answer for your business?

Blockchain is poised to transform not just financial services, but how all business is transacted online.
HPE’s Blockchain Transformation Workshops help customers understand the potential blockchain can bring to their business.
During the workshops, we assess how new blockchain operating models can streamline business practices and enable new business opportunities.
Blockchain is not about a single technology; it should be viewed as a new, comprehensive approach to providing services and value to the business.

Here’s a guide to which questions you should ask

Although businesses are just beginning to uncover the transformative powers of blockchain, there’s no shortage of comparisons to the Internet given its potential to fundamentally disrupt business models and the way companies interact with their customers. But getting started can be difficult. Most businesses don’t know where to begin or even what questions to ask.

At HPE, we work with enterprise customers every day to help them ask the right questions and work together on the answers. We start simple—what are you trying to achieve? Is blockchain even appropriate for this particular workload, or would traditional technology achieve the same results? Who are the stakeholders? What are my competitors doing? What is the best architecture for this particular use case? Our Blockchain Transformation Workshops help answer these questions. We host them to help customers understand where blockchain can deliver business value and help them develop a plan that supports their objectives.

Our Transformation Workshop methodology was developed over many years helping enterprises leverage transformational technology. Blockchain is just the latest one; however, because no two companies are the same, our approach is customized for each customer. We begin by understanding their business and revealing areas of process improvement by:

Helping them understand the potential blockchain can bring to their business
Evaluating potential blockchain use cases for a customer’s industry and business ecosystem
Identifying opportunities to streamline existing business processes and create new offerings
Understanding how blockchain will impact an existing application portfolio
Starting to develop a blockchain strategy

This assessment helps identify the many ways in which a new blockchain operating model could be used to streamline current business practices or enable new business opportunities. But we can’t stop there. Despite the significant promise that blockchain represents, companies still face issues and challenges when transforming their traditional processes to blockchain-enabled services. We work with our customers to consider each factor.

THE MOVE TO BLOCKCHAIN, FOR APPROPRIATE PROCESSES, CAN OFFER TREMENDOUS BENEFITS, INCLUDING REDUCED BUSINESS COSTS, INCREASED REVENUES AND NEW BUSINESS VALUE.

Security and Compliance

As blockchain is a new and emerging technology, regulatory authorities are struggling to keep up, and customers need to be aware of the regulatory impact, governance and compliance implications could have on their business.

Blockchain is poised to transform not just financial services, but how business is transacted online. In this new “Internet of Value” era, companies need to understand the security implications as they consider adopting the technology.

Data Privacy and Standards

One of the fundamental tenets of blockchain is the immutability of the data stored in the distributed ledger. Data cannot be changed once it is validated and bound to the transaction ledger. With records that are secure, tamper-proof and easily accessible, data privacy is air tight.

Depending on the applications, various data strategies can be applied. What data should exist on chain (i.e. in the distributed ledgers), and what should be off? Who needs to see the transactions? Who “owns” the data and where does it sit? Solutions are emerging that answer these questions in many different ways.

Business Process and Scalability

Scalability is a concern for workloads at enterprise scale. The consensus method can have a significant impact on scalability and performance and not all approaches are appropriate for every workload. We help customers figure out which architecture works best for them.

IT Operations

As with any production system, a blockchain solution must be considered from an operational perspective. Depending on how the solution is integrated with existing legacy applications, there are potential impacts in the areas of technology operations and systems support.

The move to blockchain, for appropriate processes, can offer tremendous benefits, including reduced business costs, increased revenues and new business value. But the journey to a blockchain solution is not about a single technology; we believe that it should be viewed as a new, comprehensive approach to providing services and value to the business. Only then will blockchain reach its full potential.