(c)iStock.com/DrAfter123

“We changed our business model to align with cloud,” explains Nick McNamara, VP sales Europe at connectivity provider Eseye.

The company has doubled down on both the Internet of Things (IoT) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) strategically, as McNamara, speaking at the IoT Tech Expo event last week, explains. “All connectivity providers, whether you’re an MNO, an MVNO, or like us a smart MNO, sell megabytes per month,” he says. “We no longer sell megabytes per month, we sell messages per month.

“The guy who’s building, or has built, his web application inside Amazon, will know how many messages per month his application consumes,” he adds. “We ask him that, he gives us an answer, and he buys enough messages which gives him global security connectivity within that price – it’s very easy to budget with.”

Among the deals Eseye has forged with AWS include achieving AWS IoT competency status, as well as a new product which the company describes as a ‘breakthrough’ in IoT security, called AnyNet.

Here’s how it works; once the factory is connected to the AWS Cloud Console, which triggers the creation of a certificate and policy, AWS sends a unique certificate and request to provision the SIM to Eseye, Eseye sends the certificate to the AnyNet Secure SIM, and the device is provisioned, certified and secured by the manufacturer. Thus secured, it can go out into the field.

Makes sense? It does to Eseye, who spoke with Amazon last year and found many things in common. “We saw blockage in the high volume deployment of our customers’ projects – we saw blockage in their rollouts,” says McNamara. “In trying to speak to [customers], what they were trying to do to deal with those problems, much of it was to do with security, and some of it was to do with global scale and shape inside their organisations scaling.

“[Amazon] expressed exactly the same pain that we saw inside our customer base, which was ‘we have to get security right somehow’. We can’t provide a silver bullet because everybody’s interpretation of risk is different, everybody’s interpretation of security is different, but we can apply a layer of an onion that looks to help.”

Of the various industry areas in which Eseye plays, two stand out; healthcare and consumer. They are both separate, but they of course both overlap. One customer is Everon Biosciences, which produces a wrist-worn device for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. “In terms of how you build one or either of those, it’s very similar, and in particular the greater majority of healthcare programs – non-invasive, so it’s really about assisted living, or support for the elderly, or assisted mobility – is really a consumer product, but it’s positioned inside healthcare,” says McNamara.

Both of those markets are key to the company’s future, but with Europe as his primary focus, McNamara adds that data sovereignty is key, especially in an IoT universe.

“When we hear stories of chief security officers saying [about] 90% of [their] enterprise scale IoT applications ‘we’ll never allow it to happen, because I don’t have the tools, the infrastructure, the people and processes in place to protect the data’, we understand that entirely,” he says.

“Of course, it’s not like the growth of laptops and the enterprise scale they achieved today, where they bought disk encryption to protect themselves when MPs got drunk on trains, or they had mobile device management when people started to do BYOD in enterprise computing.

“None of those commonalities can be crafted because the greater majority of IoT programs are singularly unique.”

(c)iStock.com/Maciej Noskowski

If your business is ahead of the curve when it comes to cloud adoption, then prepare for a hit of good news; organisations which execute a strategic cloud plan are growing revenue 2.3 times faster than their competition and are on average generating a 35% lift year on year in top line revenue.

But for those not quite there, what are the strategies which need to be examined? These and other findings comprised a new study from CloudHealth Technologies which argues cloud-leading firms have the edge on mitigating risk, cost, and governance.

To define the gap between the best and the rest, cloud leading organisations are more likely to have cloud SLAs (87-91% of higher tier respondents compared to 54-62% of lower tier respondents), proactively monitor for abnormal cloud behaviour (92% vs 63% respectively) and have a ‘comprehensive, clearly articulated strategy for managing cloud cost’ (94% vs 37%).

Naturally, one of the knock-on effects of outperforming the competition is greater agility. Top tier respondents were four times more likely to develop and roll out new apps, ranging from ‘somewhat’ to ‘extremely quickly’, according to the report, while leading cloud enterprises are twice as likely to say they are able to roll out new cloud deployments more efficiently.

Writing in a company blog post, Mueller noted the importance of this study was not to tell people for the umpteenth time that cloud was ‘going to be really, really big’. “What we found is that there is an enormous disparity between the top tier and the rest of the pack,” she said. “There were no particular classifications, unique traits or industries that helped to formulate the overall profile of a trailblazer. The only thing that distinguishes them is the size of their organisation…so the good news is that anyone can be a cloud leader.”

The report gives five key tenets on how to become a cloud leader. Companies should designate responsibility and assign a ‘cloud steward’ who has a comprehensive knowledge of both the technology and the business goals, CloudHealth notes, with more than three quarters (76%) of cloud leaders polled having such a position in their ranks. Continuity was seen as vital – organisations should not only set metrics for success but make them a continuous cycle of measuring and tracking – as well as automating day to day routines and having best practice defined at the organisational level. Centralised governance and having a full understanding of spend – as well as it being linked to performance – were also cited.

“Any organisation can achieve similar results by applying the lessons from the trailblazers when it comes to cloud management,” the report concludes.

You can find out more here (registration required).

(c)iStock.com/Maciej Noskowski

If your business is ahead of the curve when it comes to cloud adoption, then prepare for a hit of good news; organisations which execute a strategic cloud plan are growing revenue 2.3 times faster than their competition and are on average generating a 35% lift year on year in top line revenue.

But for those not quite there, what are the strategies which need to be examined? These and other findings comprised a new study from CloudHealth Technologies which argues cloud-leading firms have the edge on mitigating risk, cost, and governance.

To define the gap between the best and the rest, cloud leading organisations are more likely to have cloud SLAs (87-91% of higher tier respondents compared to 54-62% of lower tier respondents), proactively monitor for abnormal cloud behaviour (92% vs 63% respectively) and have a ‘comprehensive, clearly articulated strategy for managing cloud cost’ (94% vs 37%).

Naturally, one of the knock-on effects of outperforming the competition is greater agility. Top tier respondents were four times more likely to develop and roll out new apps, ranging from ‘somewhat’ to ‘extremely quickly’, according to the report, while leading cloud enterprises are twice as likely to say they are able to roll out new cloud deployments more efficiently.

Writing in a company blog post, Mueller noted the importance of this study was not to tell people for the umpteenth time that cloud was ‘going to be really, really big’. “What we found is that there is an enormous disparity between the top tier and the rest of the pack,” she said. “There were no particular classifications, unique traits or industries that helped to formulate the overall profile of a trailblazer. The only thing that distinguishes them is the size of their organisation…so the good news is that anyone can be a cloud leader.”

The report gives five key tenets on how to become a cloud leader. Companies should designate responsibility and assign a ‘cloud steward’ who has a comprehensive knowledge of both the technology and the business goals, CloudHealth notes, with more than three quarters (76%) of cloud leaders polled having such a position in their ranks. Continuity was seen as vital – organisations should not only set metrics for success but make them a continuous cycle of measuring and tracking – as well as automating day to day routines and having best practice defined at the organisational level. Centralised governance and having a full understanding of spend – as well as it being linked to performance – were also cited.

“Any organisation can achieve similar results by applying the lessons from the trailblazers when it comes to cloud management,” the report concludes.

You can find out more here (registration required).

(c)iStock.com/CatLane

It’s that time again; another quarter passes by and with it comes a variety of financial reports from the big hitters. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, IBM, and Microsoft have all filed within the past week – so what do the figures all mean?

Top line highlights:

• IBM’s cloud revenue was at $13.7 billion for the full year of 2016, up 35%, while fourth quarter cloud revenues increased 33% to $4.2bn
• Microsoft’s commercial cloud annualised revenue run rate hit $14 billion, with Azure revenue up 95% in constant currency and compute usage more than doubling year on year
• Alphabet does not disclose specifics but ‘other revenue’ – which includes cloud computing – went up 62% to $3.4 billion in the most recent quarter

In terms of wider figures, IBM’s overall Q416 revenue was $21.8bn, down 1% year over year and with cloud representing almost 20% of the total. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue total was $24.1bn GAAP, seeing an uptick of 1%, while Alphabet reported $26.1bn in total for the fourth quarter.

Naturally, all the quotes were around similar themes. “I am pleased with our results this quarter,” said Microsoft EVP and chief financial officer Amy Hood. “We see strong demand for our cloud-based services and are executing well on our long-term growth strategy.”

“We have established ourselves as the industry’s leading cognitive solutions and cloud platform company,” said IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. “More and more clients are choosing the IBM Cloud because of its differentiated capabilities, which are helping to transform industries such as financial services, airlines and retail.” “We’re seeing great momentum in Google’s newer investment areas and ongoing strong progress in ‘other bets,’” said Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat.

One big name is absent from this list, of course. Amazon will report its earnings in the coming week; for comparison, its third quarter figures in October saw revenue for AWS at $3.2 billion and $11.1bn over the last four quarters. The profit on the overall business for the third quarter, of $252 million, was a comparative disappointment for the analysts; so much so that a Quartz story headlined that AWS was the “financial life preserver that Amazon desperately needs.”

In a note published earlier this month, Synergy Research, a long-time observer of the cloud infrastructure marketplace, posited that infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) remain the quickest growing markets at 53% year on year, ahead of hosted private cloud infrastructure (35%) and enterprise software as a service (34%). AWS and Microsoft were the leaders in IaaS and PaaS, while IBM and Rackspace were on top for hosted private cloud, with operator and vendor revenues for the overall cloud services and infrastructure market hitting $148bn in 2016.

Previous analysis from the firm continues to put AWS well ahead of the competition, with Microsoft relatively secure in second place. Sangara Narayanan, writing for GuruFocus.com earlier this week, said: “For now and for the foreseeable future, Amazon’s AWS gets to keep the IaaS crown despite aggressive moves from Microsoft and IBM to expand their own cloud revenues in their own unique ways.”

It will of course be interesting to see what AWS rustles up; for the meantime, however, the cloud arms at Alphabet, IBM and Microsoft continue to shine if perhaps the overall business hasn’t. A recent Bloomberg report summed it up best – the companies “reinforced what’s become a truism in technology: the biggest growth is in businesses that deliver computing over the internet.”

You can read the full statements for Alphabet, IBM, and Microsoft here.

(c)iStock.com/CatLane

It’s that time again; another quarter passes by and with it comes a variety of financial reports from the big hitters. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, IBM, and Microsoft have all filed within the past week – so what do the figures all mean?

Top line highlights:

• IBM’s cloud revenue was at $13.7 billion for the full year of 2016, up 35%, while fourth quarter cloud revenues increased 33% to $4.2bn
• Microsoft’s commercial cloud annualised revenue run rate hit $14 billion, with Azure revenue up 95% in constant currency and compute usage more than doubling year on year
• Alphabet does not disclose specifics but ‘other revenue’ – which includes cloud computing – went up 62% to $3.4 billion in the most recent quarter

In terms of wider figures, IBM’s overall Q416 revenue was $21.8bn, down 1% year over year and with cloud representing almost 20% of the total. Microsoft’s quarterly revenue total was $24.1bn GAAP, seeing an uptick of 1%, while Alphabet reported $26.1bn in total for the fourth quarter.

Naturally, all the quotes were around similar themes. “I am pleased with our results this quarter,” said Microsoft EVP and chief financial officer Amy Hood. “We see strong demand for our cloud-based services and are executing well on our long-term growth strategy.”

“We have established ourselves as the industry’s leading cognitive solutions and cloud platform company,” said IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. “More and more clients are choosing the IBM Cloud because of its differentiated capabilities, which are helping to transform industries such as financial services, airlines and retail.” “We’re seeing great momentum in Google’s newer investment areas and ongoing strong progress in ‘other bets,’” said Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat.

One big name is absent from this list, of course. Amazon will report its earnings in the coming week; for comparison, its third quarter figures in October saw revenue for AWS at $3.2 billion and $11.1bn over the last four quarters. The profit on the overall business for the third quarter, of $252 million, was a comparative disappointment for the analysts; so much so that a Quartz story headlined that AWS was the “financial life preserver that Amazon desperately needs.”

In a note published earlier this month, Synergy Research, a long-time observer of the cloud infrastructure marketplace, posited that infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) remain the quickest growing markets at 53% year on year, ahead of hosted private cloud infrastructure (35%) and enterprise software as a service (34%). AWS and Microsoft were the leaders in IaaS and PaaS, while IBM and Rackspace were on top for hosted private cloud, with operator and vendor revenues for the overall cloud services and infrastructure market hitting $148bn in 2016.

Previous analysis from the firm continues to put AWS well ahead of the competition, with Microsoft relatively secure in second place. Sangara Narayanan, writing for GuruFocus.com earlier this week, said: “For now and for the foreseeable future, Amazon’s AWS gets to keep the IaaS crown despite aggressive moves from Microsoft and IBM to expand their own cloud revenues in their own unique ways.”

It will of course be interesting to see what AWS rustles up; for the meantime, however, the cloud arms at Alphabet, IBM and Microsoft continue to shine if perhaps the overall business hasn’t. A recent Bloomberg report summed it up best – the companies “reinforced what’s become a truism in technology: the biggest growth is in businesses that deliver computing over the internet.”

You can read the full statements for Alphabet, IBM, and Microsoft here.

(c)iStock.com/DrAfter123

The way in which DevOps is being tackled by different organisations can be defined in one of two ways. You’ve either got the ‘teenage sex’ approach – everyone’s talking about it but hardly anybody’s doing it – or you’ve got the Eric Morecambe method; ‘all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order.’

In other words, there is no one unified guide; companies and departments are taking their own strands and doing it their own way. This has been backed up by a study from B2B research firm Clutch released earlier this week, which finds that while 95% of organisations polled either already use or plan to use DevOps methodologies, nobody can agree on a proper definition.

The most popular definition at the time of the survey, according to the almost 250 respondents, came from Wikipedia, which states that DevOps “is a culture, movement or practice that emphasises the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other [IT] professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes.”

35% of those polled plumped for that, ahead of definitions taken from Rackspace (24%) – “uniting development and operations teams” – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (21%) – “grounded in a combination of agile software development plus Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing, and Six Sigma methodologies” – and Amazon Web Services (20%) – “combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organisation’s ability to deliver applications and services at a high velocity” – respectively.

Riley Panko, the author of the report, said she wouldn’t have been surprised by a 25% split across all four from respondents. “We did hypothesise that there would be a lack of consensus among the definitions,” Panko told CloudTech. “We were a little surprised that Wikipedia’s definition secured even an 11% edge over the second-place definition.”

Organisations need to take time with DevOps to align the processes with their own goals – but not too much, for fear of being left behind

When asked whether employing DevOps has improved organisations’ development process, the average score out of 10 was 8.7. 87% of respondents put their score between eight and 10, with only one respondent putting ranking it four or below. According to survey respondents, Docker was the most useful tool for employing DevOps, with Microsoft Azure the most effective of the ‘big three’ cloud providers.

Panko noted that, in conducting the research, one clear element stood out. “I believe that culture is a key element to DevOps,” she said. “Successful DevOps implementation seems to require more than just tools and new processes – it involves encouraging a culture of greater communication and collaboration. Using those tools and processes with an antiquated mindset is counterintuitive – however, it’s all a matter of personal opinion and how you define DevOps for your own organisation.”

This is a view backed up by Brian Dearman, solutions architect at IT infrastructure consulting provider Mindsight. “It being a cultural movement is true,” he said. “15 to 20 years ago, DevOps consisted of two separate things, with operations and development consistently complaining about each other. The culture is being changed, removing the animosity between each side.” David Hickman, VP of global delivery at IT services firm Menlo Technologies, said that it was ‘more of a methodology trend than a culture’, adding it “pertains more to social elements of organisations and how people relate to each other from a professional and business perspective.”

So for the vast majority who are partaking, what should be done from here? As the various definitions overlap and consensus is less than universal, Clutch recommends organisations should take time to align the processes with their own goals, but not too much, for fear of being left behind. “Leaving a team without those guidelines means that they might develop conflicting ideas about DevOps, since many differing ideas about the philosophy already exist,” said Panko.

A study released earlier this month by F5 came to a slightly different conclusion; while the poll, of almost 2,200 IT executives and industry professionals, said usage was increasing, only one in five said DevOps had a strategic impact on their organisation.

You can read the full Clutch report here.

Postscript: The reason the Wikipedia entry was signposted as ‘at the time of the survey’ was because the definition has since changed. At the time of print, the page now explains DevOps is “a term used to refer to a set of practices that emphasise the collaboration and communication of both software developers and IT professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes.” Semantics, eh?

(c)iStock.com/DrAfter123

The way in which DevOps is being tackled by different organisations can be defined in one of two ways. You’ve either got the ‘teenage sex’ approach – everyone’s talking about it but hardly anybody’s doing it – or you’ve got the Eric Morecambe method; ‘all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order.’

In other words, there is no one unified guide; companies and departments are taking their own strands and doing it their own way. This has been backed up by a study from B2B research firm Clutch released earlier this week, which finds that while 95% of organisations polled either already use or plan to use DevOps methodologies, nobody can agree on a proper definition.

The most popular definition at the time of the survey, according to the almost 250 respondents, came from Wikipedia, which states that DevOps “is a culture, movement or practice that emphasises the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other [IT] professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes.”

35% of those polled plumped for that, ahead of definitions taken from Rackspace (24%) – “uniting development and operations teams” – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (21%) – “grounded in a combination of agile software development plus Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing, and Six Sigma methodologies” – and Amazon Web Services (20%) – “combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organisation’s ability to deliver applications and services at a high velocity” – respectively.

Riley Panko, the author of the report, said she wouldn’t have been surprised by a 25% split across all four from respondents. “We did hypothesise that there would be a lack of consensus among the definitions,” Panko told CloudTech. “We were a little surprised that Wikipedia’s definition secured even an 11% edge over the second-place definition.”

Organisations need to take time with DevOps to align the processes with their own goals – but not too much, for fear of being left behind

When asked whether employing DevOps has improved organisations’ development process, the average score out of 10 was 8.7. 87% of respondents put their score between eight and 10, with only one respondent putting ranking it four or below. According to survey respondents, Docker was the most useful tool for employing DevOps, with Microsoft Azure the most effective of the ‘big three’ cloud providers.

Panko noted that, in conducting the research, one clear element stood out. “I believe that culture is a key element to DevOps,” she said. “Successful DevOps implementation seems to require more than just tools and new processes – it involves encouraging a culture of greater communication and collaboration. Using those tools and processes with an antiquated mindset is counterintuitive – however, it’s all a matter of personal opinion and how you define DevOps for your own organisation.”

This is a view backed up by Brian Dearman, solutions architect at IT infrastructure consulting provider Mindsight. “It being a cultural movement is true,” he said. “15 to 20 years ago, DevOps consisted of two separate things, with operations and development consistently complaining about each other. The culture is being changed, removing the animosity between each side.” David Hickman, VP of global delivery at IT services firm Menlo Technologies, said that it was ‘more of a methodology trend than a culture’, adding it “pertains more to social elements of organisations and how people relate to each other from a professional and business perspective.”

So for the vast majority who are partaking, what should be done from here? As the various definitions overlap and consensus is less than universal, Clutch recommends organisations should take time to align the processes with their own goals, but not too much, for fear of being left behind. “Leaving a team without those guidelines means that they might develop conflicting ideas about DevOps, since many differing ideas about the philosophy already exist,” said Panko.

A study released earlier this month by F5 came to a slightly different conclusion; while the poll, of almost 2,200 IT executives and industry professionals, said usage was increasing, only one in five said DevOps had a strategic impact on their organisation.

You can read the full Clutch report here.

Postscript: The reason the Wikipedia entry was signposted as ‘at the time of the survey’ was because the definition has since changed. At the time of print, the page now explains DevOps is “a term used to refer to a set of practices that emphasise the collaboration and communication of both software developers and IT professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes.” Semantics, eh?

(c)iStock.com/Rainer von Brandis

If the goal for CIOs is to go to the cloud, one thing is holding them back, according to a new report from Trustmarque: outdated budgeting models.

The report, titled ‘Highlighting operational and financial barriers to cloud’, argues more than half (55%) of UK CIOs polled believe out of date capex models are slowing down their adoption of cloud services. An overwhelming 87% say existing software licensing agreements are another cause of delay – a higher figure than last year’s survey indicating the problem is getting worse – while 59% cite inflexibility of fixed-term and fixed-user licensing agreements.

If that wasn’t bad enough, more than three quarters (77%) of CIOs say they are finding it difficult to establish which cloud services are suitable for their organisation, while a similar number (72%) say different payment methods makes things more complicated. Half of respondents say cloud is only partly delivering on its promised benefits.

So what can be done? Naturally, Trustmarque has its own solution – a product called Cloud-ESP, which aims to provide an online portal for procurement and management of cloud services – but more widely, the need for new skills and potentially restructuring IT operations needs to be on organisations’ radar.

“The on-demand nature of cloud means unmanaged cloud can play havoc with long term financial plans,” said James Butler, Trustmarque CTO. “CIOs must ensure they retain full visibility and control over their IT estate, across SaaS, IaaS and traditionally licensed solutions, to minimise the unplanned spend that poorly managed cloud infrastructure and services can result in.

“Transitioning to the cloud, or becoming a ‘cloud-first’ business, is a sizeable task for many organisations,” Butler added. “It has taken a short period of time for cloud to become such a disruptive force, and it is likely that effect will continue into the next five years.

“The CIO of 2017 must be capable of embracing cloud while minimising unintended consequences, by succeeding in overcoming the existing barriers to cloud adoption.”

You can find out more and read the full report here.

(c)iStock.com/Rainer von Brandis

If the goal for CIOs is to go to the cloud, one thing is holding them back, according to a new report from Trustmarque: outdated budgeting models.

The report, titled ‘Highlighting operational and financial barriers to cloud’, argues more than half (55%) of UK CIOs polled believe out of date capex models are slowing down their adoption of cloud services. An overwhelming 87% say existing software licensing agreements are another cause of delay – a higher figure than last year’s survey indicating the problem is getting worse – while 59% cite inflexibility of fixed-term and fixed-user licensing agreements.

If that wasn’t bad enough, more than three quarters (77%) of CIOs say they are finding it difficult to establish which cloud services are suitable for their organisation, while a similar number (72%) say different payment methods makes things more complicated. Half of respondents say cloud is only partly delivering on its promised benefits.

So what can be done? Naturally, Trustmarque has its own solution – a product called Cloud-ESP, which aims to provide an online portal for procurement and management of cloud services – but more widely, the need for new skills and potentially restructuring IT operations needs to be on organisations’ radar.

“The on-demand nature of cloud means unmanaged cloud can play havoc with long term financial plans,” said James Butler, Trustmarque CTO. “CIOs must ensure they retain full visibility and control over their IT estate, across SaaS, IaaS and traditionally licensed solutions, to minimise the unplanned spend that poorly managed cloud infrastructure and services can result in.

“Transitioning to the cloud, or becoming a ‘cloud-first’ business, is a sizeable task for many organisations,” Butler added. “It has taken a short period of time for cloud to become such a disruptive force, and it is likely that effect will continue into the next five years.

“The CIO of 2017 must be capable of embracing cloud while minimising unintended consequences, by succeeding in overcoming the existing barriers to cloud adoption.”

(c)iStock.com/Radachynskyi

Blockchain has serious potential to disrupt a multitude of industries, but a lot of barriers – not least confusion – still need to be ironed out.

That’s one of the verdicts from a recent research report from analyst firm Tractica on how the database technology, defined as a ‘distributed data verification technology wherein financial and operational transactions are recorded and validated across a network, rather than through a central authority’, can move away from its Bitcoin roots.

The report, titled ‘Blockchain for Enterprise Applications’, details that while Bitcoin was blockchain’s first ‘killer app’, it is “blossoming beyond cryptocurrency and the transfer of money, to an architecture that can support many times of transactions, from logging an event, to signing a document, to allocating energy between parties, and far beyond.”

Jessica Groopman is a principal analyst at Tractica, and author of the report. Having covered the Internet of Things (IoT) for years before looking more seriously at blockchain several months ago, she notes that “blockchain makes IoT look like a toy store.” More importantly from her employer’s perspective however, this represents the first time to her knowledge a technology analyst, rather than a consulting firm, had explored this specific topic.

Blockchain makes IoT look like a toy store

“The real light switch for us was thinking about this as a new way to really unite, or, if nothing else, shorten the time between financial transactions and operational execution,” she tells CloudTech. “Those two processes – that is, paying for something and the event you are paying for, or the operation that you’re paying for happening, are somewhat disconnected.

“That’s the way I try and explain it to people,” Groopman adds. “It helps bridge that gap between a process occurring and payment for transaction or currency exchange for that process – although it’s not always currency.”

With this background, Groopman discusses the “painful hours” spent – jokingly, of course – assessing how far beyond currency blockchain can go. With a bit of lateral thinking, the possibilities are vast and varied. Digital and music rights can be transformed, for instance; in September a startup called Revelator raised $2.5 million to tackle this very task, with the theory being that the public, secure nature of the ledger and the immediacy of the record-keeping could enable much more efficient payments.

Groopman argues that while there are plenty of “interesting, eyebrow-raising opportunities”, the industries where the biggest impact will be found will be healthcare, government, logistics, and energy, for two reasons; one, they have the most dollars riding on them; and two, they will cause a domino effect for the more ‘tangential’ industries to follow.

“If this becomes a pervasive part of the transportation industry, smart trucks or smart cars, that’s going to ripple outwards into media, into telecoms, potentially even hospitality,” says Groopman. “If your car or truck is beginning to act and transact as an autonomous agent, that’s going to run on the blockchain most securely, and so you can see how one industry picking this up would begin to open up that opportunity to other outlets.”

At the heart of blockchain technology however, and the development of it, lies a paradox, and it goes a step further to explaining how it can be used in enterprise services. While the original development of Bitcoin as a public blockchain was, as Groopman puts it, ‘anarchic’ in nature, hoping to subvert centralisation altogether, there are many stakeholders in this particular game. “The corporations that are developing and investing in this technology don’t necessarily feel that way,” she says, understatedly.

You can see how one industry picking blockchain up would begin to open up the opportunity to other outlets

Of the players who need to be singing from the same page are developers, startups, and miners, not to mention consortia, banks, and governments. Groopman argues that this is where the ‘philosophical difference’ is playing out in the development of the technology. “Getting everybody on the same page is a much more complicated, tricky task, in the private enterprise blockchain space than any other technology space I’ve ever looked at,” she admits.

As for whether there is room for both public and private blockchains, Groopman says that a hybrid approach, utilising public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and private, may be the best long-term play. “There’s definitely a role for private blockchain, because this is not something that we’re going to be able to turn on a switch overnight and completely change the dominant organisational structure of business and government,” she says, laughing. “That’s not going to happen.”

Ultimately, while the potential is vast, the report sounds a cautionary note, saying the space today ‘desperately’ needs definition. “The only in-production example of blockchain at scale today is Bitcoin,” says Groopman. “We’re still extremely early. There’s a tremendous amount of hype, and lots of frenetic energy, but when you get down to it it’s extremely early, and there are many, many barriers in place between this technology blooming into the mainstream and where we are today.”

You can find out more about the report here.