Senior Reporter, Computerworld | July 17, 2018
Oracle joins IBM, SAP, and Microsoft in offering blockchain-as-a-service for companies hoping to deploy the distributed ledger technology without the expenses associated with embracing the technology in-house.
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The company on Monday announced the availability of a fully-managed blockchain service over which businesses can automate processes over an immutable electronic ledger, such as tracking goods in a supply chain or handling customer financial transactions.
Blockchain-as-a-service offerings have grown over the past three years, enabling businesses to launch proof-of-concepts to test the distributed ledger technology without the capital costs required by an internal deployment.
[ Related: Why a Walmart VP had a ‘religious conversion’ to blockchain]Oracle first previewed its Blockchain Cloud Service at OpenWorld in October. The new offering is based on the Linux Foundation's open source Hyperledger Fabric platform, a collaboration tool for building blockchain distributed ledger business networks such as smart contract technology.
Oracle also announced it has a handful of early BaaS adopters who've rolled out proof-of-concepts, including Arab Jordan Investment Bank, CargoSmart, Certified Origins, Intelipost, Nigeria Customs and Solar Site Design.
For example, Tuscany, Italy-based olive oil producer Certified Origins rolled out a blockchain PoC in early 2018 that it's now moving into production to trace – from origin to retailer – shipments of its Bellucci-brand of extra virgin olive oil.
"The main purpose for which the project was born, and what we are evaluating in these days of testing, is the Blockchain algorithm that is related to the greater transparency that we can provide thanks to traceability," Andrea Biagianti, CIO of Certified Origins, said in an email reply.
[ Become a Microsoft Office 365 administrator in record time with this quick start course from PluralSight. ] While Certified Origin's business model has always been built on the supply chain traceability of its olive oil, and it has received several government certifications for that, managing its supply chain through blockchain technology "seemed the logical progression of the whole traceability process," Biagianti said.
"The next step, and further evolution of our blockchain system, will be the accurate and precise management of the smart contract in order to give the system the automatic method of evaluating production choices," Biagianti said. "The assessments that today are performed by the operator will be performed by the smart contract and this will allow the team to spend more time for operational and quality checks."
A smart contract is a blockchain-based business automation tool that executes against pre-determined rules based on embedded code. For example, once a cargo shipment is acknowledged as received from a shipper, payment can automatically be transferred from a bank to the manufacturer and/or the shipping company.
https://www.itworld.com/article/3290246/blockchain/oracle-rolls-out-its-own-blockchain-service.html