VMware’s launched a blockchain that may be very good. The packaging it's used is more important
(2020/11/19)
- Reference: 1605768372
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/19/vmware_blockchain/
- Source link:
Blockheads are about to get a new appreciation of private clouds and application packaging, after VMware launched a Blockchain product.
Imaginatively named “VMware Blockchain”, the product debuts more than two years after it was teased at VMworld 2018 and quite some time after numerous rivals have brought enterprise Blockchain products to market.
So why is VMware bothering to make a late run?
The answer is that VMware thinks it has a better-packaged Blockchain that will be easier to implement because it is ready to be deployed under its flagship vSphere private cloud management tool.
That matters because Blockchains are decentralized ledgers, meaning participants may well need their own node. Packaging a Blockchain as a ready-to-roll VM makes it easier for participants to build their modes, and therefore easier to get a multi-party Blockchain up and running. That vSphere is also capable of linking multiple instances into single logical entities is also valuable, as is VMware’s experience in operating and securing software-defined networks. Indeed, VMware can pull off tricks like creating temporary network microsegments secured with automatically assigned keys and do it all at scale. Up to and including Blockchain scale.
VMware’s poster child for its Blockchain is the Australian Stock Exchange, which is building a ( [1]much-delayed ) trading platform built on a distributed ledger and the DAML smart contract language. Many market participants will need their own Blockchain node. Packing it around vSphere makes it easier for participants to create and consume.
VMware’s packaging also delivers a certain pleasing homogeneity, but that’s not necessary as the company has made sure its Blockchain is addressable with the DAML smart contract language that is becoming widely-adopted as the way to define distributed ledger applications. A VMware blockchain will therefore be useful in the kind of neatly-defined environment of the Australian Stock Exchange or in looser usage.
That this stuff should appeal to Blockheads is evident in [2]this VMware explainer article that includes a section titled “What is a virtual machine?” While that’s a question that anyone who has worked in IT in the last 20 years can answer without much thought, those outside of IT ops clearly need a primer on how to make their crypto dreams real.
VMware is therefore betting its core competencies of tending virtual machines and networks gives it the opportunity to spread its platform into the distributed ledger community.
It’s also betting it has a Blockchain that will excite, talking up its fault tolerance and integrity. Technical details of its approach to Blockchain can be found [3]here . ®
Get our [4]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/28/asx_chess_distributed_ledger_delayed/
[2] https://octo.vmware.com/virtualized-environments-decentralized-applications/
[3] https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Blockchain/index.html
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Imaginatively named “VMware Blockchain”, the product debuts more than two years after it was teased at VMworld 2018 and quite some time after numerous rivals have brought enterprise Blockchain products to market.
So why is VMware bothering to make a late run?
The answer is that VMware thinks it has a better-packaged Blockchain that will be easier to implement because it is ready to be deployed under its flagship vSphere private cloud management tool.
That matters because Blockchains are decentralized ledgers, meaning participants may well need their own node. Packaging a Blockchain as a ready-to-roll VM makes it easier for participants to build their modes, and therefore easier to get a multi-party Blockchain up and running. That vSphere is also capable of linking multiple instances into single logical entities is also valuable, as is VMware’s experience in operating and securing software-defined networks. Indeed, VMware can pull off tricks like creating temporary network microsegments secured with automatically assigned keys and do it all at scale. Up to and including Blockchain scale.
VMware’s poster child for its Blockchain is the Australian Stock Exchange, which is building a ( [1]much-delayed ) trading platform built on a distributed ledger and the DAML smart contract language. Many market participants will need their own Blockchain node. Packing it around vSphere makes it easier for participants to create and consume.
VMware’s packaging also delivers a certain pleasing homogeneity, but that’s not necessary as the company has made sure its Blockchain is addressable with the DAML smart contract language that is becoming widely-adopted as the way to define distributed ledger applications. A VMware blockchain will therefore be useful in the kind of neatly-defined environment of the Australian Stock Exchange or in looser usage.
That this stuff should appeal to Blockheads is evident in [2]this VMware explainer article that includes a section titled “What is a virtual machine?” While that’s a question that anyone who has worked in IT in the last 20 years can answer without much thought, those outside of IT ops clearly need a primer on how to make their crypto dreams real.
VMware is therefore betting its core competencies of tending virtual machines and networks gives it the opportunity to spread its platform into the distributed ledger community.
It’s also betting it has a Blockchain that will excite, talking up its fault tolerance and integrity. Technical details of its approach to Blockchain can be found [3]here . ®
Get our [4]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/28/asx_chess_distributed_ledger_delayed/
[2] https://octo.vmware.com/virtualized-environments-decentralized-applications/
[3] https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Blockchain/index.html
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
katrinab
A very widely implemented 1970s technology that some people are wetting themselves over as The Next Big Thing.
TeeCee
Yet another blockchain implementation that you can buy for
Or, as your board members would understand it from the tech pages of the FT: Iz must hav block chain nowz.
Or, as we would understand it: A load of implementation work we don't need to produce something that does something we already do, only more slowly and in a more complicated manner.
What's this article about?