It’s an exciting time for IBM LinuxONE. Over the past several months, we’ve been doubling down on new hardware, Red Hat OpenShift and new Cloud Paks for LinuxONE, and new confidential computing capabilities. More than ever, our clients of all sizes looking to win in the era of hybrid cloud are focused on key areas: resiliency, performance demands, security, flexibility and modernization.

Other areas of growth for LinuxONE are emerging workloads and industries like blockchain and digital asset custody. While the importance of safeguarding business and customer data is well known, the nature of blockchain use cases often include the initiation, transfer and custody of financial assets for your business and your customers—which further increases the importance of building applications with security and privacy first.

News from R3’s CordaCon

Today at R3’s CordaCon conference, IBM joins R3 on the virtual stage to announce a new open beta program to bring R3’s enterprise blockchain platform, Corda Enterprise to IBM LinuxONE next month both on premises and the IBM Cloud, delivered using IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services. The R3 on IBM LinuxONE beta program will open on November 2, 2020. General availability (GA) is expected in Q1 2021.

For IBM, bringing R3 Corda Enterprise to LinuxONE is another example of us opening up the platform to deliver the flexibility and choice clients want with the security they need. Not only do blockchain and digital asset custodians face the same traditional security threats as every other business, they also have concerns around data residency, standards compliance and needs around deployment flexibility—all concerns that must be resolved at the infrastructure level.

IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services are designed following a zero-trust security model, not trusting anyone by default, even those within the network perimeter. With IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services, client data is fully protected, while at rest and in flight, even from those with elevated system credentials who should not have access. This is done using technology to enforce that those with elevated system credentials cannot access your data. And, IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Service gives you access to IBM’s industry-leading hardware security module (HSM), certified to be the industry’s first and only FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certified Hardware Security Module (HSM) available in the public cloud^[1].

What this means: IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services provide you with a cloud environment that is engineered for technical assurance of data privacy (in other words, administrators should not access servers or data), as we use technology to enforce those boundaries. This means that you can run your R3 Corda Enterprise workload in the IBM Cloud, with no technical ability for cloud administrators to gain access to your encryption keys or data.

Today’s announcement isn’t an anomaly. We’re also working with clients in the digital asset custody space like OnChain and Hex Trust—as well as clients who need to protect important IP like CDG and Mainbloq. It’s also the same technology that is found in our IBM Cloud for Financial Services and Apple CareKit’s IBM Hyper Protect Software Development Kit (SDK) for iOS—demonstrating that when it comes to open and secure, LinuxONE is part of our clients’ hybrid cloud strategies, from startups to the Fortune 100.

“Corda Enterprise deployment on IBM’s LinuxONE is another exciting step forward within the Corda ecosystem. Specifically, it stands to augment CorDapps such as Ivno that require secure, resilient, and performant node-hosting strategies; ultimately benefiting the wider Corda client base,” said Ryan Gledhill, CTO, Ivno.

>> To learn more about this new deployment option for R3 Corda Enterprise, or participate in the beta program, please visit us here.

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.