Technology giants Oracle and IBM have announced that they are working on the compatibility of their Hyperledger Fabric-based block and logistics projects.
Oracle developers reported on their collaboration at the Hyperledger Global Forum held in Phoenix. Mark Rakhmilevich, Oracle's senior director of product management for blockades, said that work on blockades compatibility began in late 2018, before the first Hyperledger Global Forum, which was held in Basel.
"We conducted full testing with IBM and SAP. The three of us basically did a firewall test at Fabric. So if someone comes in and says they want to run the network in Oracle, but they have stakeholders who prefer to work in the IBM network, we can show them the technology that has been tested and certified," said Rakhmilevich.
Technological aspects of development include smoothing the exchange of information between networks in a format that the other side can process. "The long-term goal should be to create a simple user interface in which you can customize at the touch of a button. So far we've been doing manual connectivity tests," added Rahmilevich.
Large companies often use the same protocol to develop their own blockages. For example, Oracle and IBM created their networks based on Hyperledger Fabric. Each company has also set up its own consortium, in which firms come together to track their supply chains. For example, CargoSmart members work on Oracle Blockchain, and TradeLens members work on IBM Blockchain Platform.
Both consortia include sea ports around the world, as well as forwarding companies. This means that any step towards compatibility of these projects can potentially be of great importance to the participating industry players. To make this process more flexible, Rachmielevich believes that it is necessary to "start with the code", while the complex work of creating a formal consortium can be done in parallel.
"It will take a long time to create a consortium structure. That's why we have already started creating the technological basis while legal discussions are going on," he said.
The development teams at IBM, Oracle and SAP are optimistic about collaboration among the firms involved in the various deployments of Hyperledger Fabric. However, business decision makers can see things differently.
"Big IT companies have a history of competition, but at the technical level it makes sense to collaborate, whether it's formal standards or informal. In particular, when it comes to a blockbuster, which is an ecosystem. Several parties will participate in it, therefore we need to be convinced that it can be supported in several clouds and at different suppliers. We are still competitors in the market, and will always remain so," Rakhmilevich said.
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