Learn how Hypercell utilizes IBM Hyper Protect Databases in their service

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Leverages IBM Cloud and confidential computing capabilities to meet security requirements.

Hypercell is a Finnish company that provides IoT -services for Smart Cities and their stakeholders. Hypercell’s service produces massive-scale people flow data that helps cities and their stakeholders to develop their services and to optimize their overall eco-system. Hypercell sees a huge value in the security and reliability of IBM’s confidential computing capabilities, which include Hyper Protect and mainframe technology in combination with NodeJS. Together with IBM Virtual Private Cloud those solutions provide an agile and stable environment for Hypercell’s business. 

The core business of Hypercell revolves around massive-scale people flow data which is produced with their keys in hand -solution to Smart Cities and their stakeholders. Hypercell provides sensors including a data communication plan along with a data platform with REST API functionality all in one package with a plug-and-play mentality. Typical use cases for Hypercell’s service are related to understanding people volume and dwell times during a specific time interval and movement between the key interest points within the sensor network. 

Hypercell have worked with the cities of Helsinki, Turku and Tampere which are the most populated cities in Finland. As an example, Hypercell has provided data on the key interest points of international cruise ship passengers in Helsinki as well as monitored street traffic in the heart of Tampere and Turku cities. In addition, Hypercell provided their services for Helsinki Exhibition Center for their biggest fair where over 20 million rows of data were collected during the four day event which amassed over 90.000 visitors. 

The people flow data is a building block for the future

People flow data unlocks possibilities which are never-before-seen for cities and their tie groups to improve their services and tap further into their unrealized customer potential. Whether they want to measure their marketing efficiency or cut down queue times of customer service, the collected data is essential for successful decision making. 

Hypercell’s service model is based on deployable sensors that collect real-time data both indoors and outdoors. The collected data is stored on a MongoDB enterprise database running on IBM Hyper Protect DBaaS. Hypercell’s sensor network is capable of detecting virtually unlimited number of signals every minute and it is imperative that all of the data is securely stored and easily accessible for Hypercell’s clients. 

Reliability and security of the cloud is in the heart of the business 

The reliability of IBM Cloud is crucial for Hypercell since their customers expect credible results from data analysis. The decisions based on the data impact whole cities and their eco-systems. In addition, the reliability of the data platform is very important for Hypercell and their customers. It is unacceptable to have service downtime during large-scale city events where the data is used for security reasons to provide situational awareness in real-time. 

Hypercell’s service is 100% compliant with GDPR regulations and having a secure cloud environment to receive and process the data is an essential ingredient when storing this type of data. Some of the data can be considered sensitive in nature and it is often used for the client’s own development purposes but not to be disclosed in public. The different city stakeholders such as shopping centers, airports or passenger terminals need to have their data stored securely and IBM’s tamper-proof enterprise cloud data base environments built on LinuxOne technology are just the right tool for this.

With increasing volumes of business-critical data migrating to the cloud, addressing these concerns has never proved more pressing. Nevertheless, the security of these platforms can vary, which is why harnessing the strengths of Confidential Computing proves integral. 

In a typical cloud configuration, data is usually encrypted when its ‘at rest’ or ‘in transit’, but when that data is processed and decrypted it can be left potentially vulnerable. Confidential Computing offers a solution as it isolates sensitive data in a protected CPU enclave during processing. Crucially, the contents of this enclave remain accessible only through an authorized programming code, which cannot be viewed by others – including the cloud provider. 

Confidential Computing can also be instrumental in helping to facilitate further collaboration across businesses. By ensuring data is processed in a shielded environment, companies can co-operate securely with partners – without the risk of compromising IP or revealing proprietary information. Data security is ensured by using IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services which integrates both hardware and software security and relies on the industry’s most highly certified cryptographic hardware. Service allows data to be encrypted in a public cloud during use in every point. Data can be processed in the cloud and trusted to remain secure during transmission, use and rest. Even the cloud provider does not have access to the data. Companies that move sensitive data to the cloud often have to trust that the cloud provider will not misuse the data. In this case dedicated cryptographic key management provides strongest possible technical assurance of data integrity.

Combining mainframe technology with NodeJS does not need to be slow and expensive  

In era of cloud the fast developing cycles in open-source communities open more agile and powerfull way to build your applications. Hypercell wants to utilize as much opensource and cloud native capabilities in their application development as they can. IBM’s contribution to open source communite and strategy to build open and agile cloud platform offers faster go to market time and flexibility needed in nodern markets.

”General perception has been that all mainframe related projects tend to be prohibitively expensive and/or slow to implement. Luckily, that is not the case. For us in Hypercell, we share the concern and dedication to data security and privacy and feel that basing the core parts of our services on a proven and trusted, yet still modern and agile foundation of mainframe technology is the right way to go. We see that IBM as a company and IBM Cloud as a platform has proven to be a valuable partner in this regard. By combining IBM’s Hyper Protect DBaaS -portfolio with open-source technologies like NodeJS, we have been able to achieve and exceed the needed level of security while retaining all the agility needed. The ease of use really surprised us – we really were up and running in a few minutes.” 

Find more information about:
Anonymous tracking of people flows in a city
Confidential Computing
Hyper protect virtual servers
IBM LinuxONE