Note to IT: Blockchain Isn't Magic

Whether yous take partaken of the trademarked fruit punch or not, everyone can agree that one of blockchain's chief exports these days is hype. Information technology seems every bit if this method of data storage and system is the perfect answer for everything. Some are calling information technology the next internet. Others are maxim that it's the answer to all your database and IT security needs. If y'all heed to the enthusiasts, and then it'southward amend than dark baseball. (But it's not; nothing is amend than night baseball, except possibly afternoon baseball.)

As an IT manager, you're likely being deluged by questions from others in your organization, request if you should exist deploying a blockchain solution. Or maybe complaining that you haven't already washed so. And, of grade, they all want a blockchain strategy, and they want information technology yesterday.

So, to commencement things off on the right foot, let'due south beginning with the strategy question. An easy 1 to answer because it's always going to be "no." Not because yous don't desire blockchain, only considering the question makes no sense. The engineer doesn't tell the captain how fast the ship is going to travel. The captain figures out where he'southward going and then tells the engineer to ready an appropriate speed.

What Is Blockchain?

Yous kickoff the procedure that style considering like any new engineering, and contrary to marketing hype, blockchain isn't magic. It's essentially a bookkeeping method; in this case, a distributed ledger. The hype would tell yous that blockchain is somehow safer than other types of record keeping, that information technology's more secure, or that it'southward more reliable. None of these claims is true.

If information technology'due south implemented properly, then a blockchain is a collection of data organized into blocks. Each of those blocks is created through a process of solving a cryptographic puzzle that depends, in function, on the value of the previous block in a chain. This ensures that you lot can't change the contents of a block because that would change the cryptographic value, which, in turn, would bear upon the values of all other subsequent blocks in the chain.

So, washed right, the contents of the distributed ledger can't be changed once they're written. And this is further ensured because of the blockchain's distributed nature, which ways there are many copies of the blockchain and they all have to hold. In add-on, a blockchain is supposed to be set up so that entries are only posted by authorized users and that, once posted, they're verified to exist right.

Common Blockchain Myths

But those are a lot of "ifs." In some applications of blockchain—notably, the blockchain that'southward used to define Bitcoin cryptocurrency—the process of creating a Bitcoin ensures the accuracy of the ledger. But information technology's of import to know that, just because there's a blockchain entry, that doesn't mean information technology's correct.

This is complicated by the fact that a blockchain tin exist much more than a financial instrument. The blocks in the chain can contain any kind of information, including programs and data. This is one reason why it's being suggested that blockchain is the next great database tech.

Merely the flexibility of blockchain is too its biggest risk. Because a blockchain can contain anything; it can contain data that's malicious, harmful, or just—even deliberately—wrong.

"Blockchain doesn't have any security. It's only a ledger app," explained George Waller, CEO of Blocksafe Technologies, which makes security products for blockchain implementations.

"The myth is that the blockchain is rubber and, while the blockchain is immutable, access to it is not," Waller said. Instead, he said that the blockchain used by your company needs to be at to the lowest degree also-protected every bit your company network, if not more so. "It could be catastrophic if a hacker got on to it," he said.

Waller said that one particularly worrisome scenario is malware that somehow gets inserted into the blockchain, at which point its greatest force—the fact that it's immutable—becomes its biggest weakness. He worries that too many organizations are implementing blockchain without too implementing proper access controls and adequate security.

Approach With Circumspection

Only all this is not to advise that using a blockchain is automatically a bad thing. If you need a manner to go along information of any kind and then that it'south protected but likewise instantly bachelor to everyone who is authorized to meet it, then using a blockchain makes a lot of sense. You simply need to remember that it's not a silver bullet. Doing blockchain correct means you need to spend some fourth dimension planning before yous make the move. You need to decide exactly what you plan to apply it for, who will have admission to it, how you'll command that access, and most important, how you'll protect it.

A good style to get started is to work with a vendor that not only has real feel, just can also provide the support necessary to help you through the entire development process and beyond. IBM, for example, has a blockchain platform and a trained professional services staff. In IBM's example, you tin use it with IBM Cloud (formerly, IBM/SoftLayer).

So, the side by side time you're asked almost your It blockchain strategy, call back there's no need to flounder for an reply. As with any other key tech, the It strategy is secondary to the business strategy, so but turn the question effectually. What's their blockchain strategy? What do they expect to exercise with a blockchain? And why should it be blockchain and not another data management method? Blockchain can be powerful and extremely useful, merely just like everything else, it has its potent spots and its risks. You demand to look at both sides of that equation before jumping on the bandwagon.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/ping-identity-pingone/29020/note-to-it-blockchain-isnt-magic

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