By Mike Carrozzo, SHARE Headquarters

Disruption is a word that tends to get bandied about quite regularly when it comes to technology. Defined as technology developments that challenge traditional business models and foster quicker and more direct engagement with customers, technologies that cause “disruption” have taken on many forms over the years. 

One that certainly falls into the category of disruption is Blockchain. Coming in both public and private form, Blockchain is a real-time ledger of records stored in a distributed, peer-to-peer manner.

Blockchain is a topic that remains highly vital to SHARE because of the benefits to today's IT industry requirement for improving transaction networks and security, which drive new opportunities for innovation while reducing cost and risk. Many companies are regularly involved in business-to-business transactions that will benefit from a secure, immutable, shared transaction ledger that enforces permissions to protect privacy. This type of system is the logical extension of efforts within businesses today, to protect data and assets with encryption everywhere, while improving the speed and efficiency of business processes.

In fact, Blockchain has been a critical educational element to SHARE, with SHARE Providence being the most recent example. Our SHARE Academy session in Providence, “IBM Blockchain on z Systems Immersion,” presented a deep dive into understanding Hyperledger Fabric, the open source code that powers IBM Blockchain.

Those who plan to join us for SHARE Sacramento have plenty of opportunities to continue that deep dive into Blockchain, as well. Here is a rundown of a few Blockchain-themed sessions planned:

• Blockchain Demystified – Monday, March 12, 2018: 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM
  During this session, IBM’s Wilhelm Mild will provide a primer to Blockchain terminology and roles, based on practical implementations. This session is meant to help attendees rise above the misperceptions associated with the technology and discover the value for their business.
• Integrating Your System of Record with Blockchain – Tuesday, March 13, 2018: 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
  This session, also lead by Mild, provides a primer for how to integrate Blockchain with your system of record. The intent of this session is to teach you the steps involved with integrating with CICS, IMS and other transaction systems, as well as to explore some lessons learned.
• Blockchain by Examples: A Use Case Story – Thursday, March 15, 2018: 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
  IBM’s Tanya Buchanan provides Blockchain education through the lens of use cases. From established use cases, to exploring potential future use cases for the technology, this session presents an opportunity to explore Blockchain in the real world.
• Lab: Build Your First Blockchain Application – Thursday, March 15, 2018: 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
  Those who are looking to build their first Blockchain application will gain hands-on experience with Hyperledger Fabric through Hyperledger Composer. Austin Grice with Rocket Software and Barry Silliman of IBM lead this interactive lab, where after deploying and testing the code, you will build and integrate a front end for end-client usage.
• Blockchain Composed – Thursday, March 15, 2018: 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
  IBM’s Silliman will dive into what Hyperledger Composer is and how it works. The primary goal is to accelerate time to value, and make it easier to integrate your Blockchain applications with the existing business systems.
• Building a Blockchain From the Ground Up – Friday, March 16, 2018: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
  Learn what Blockchain actually means as IBM’s Silliman takes you through what it takes to actually setup the fabric and how you can actually interact with it.
• Blockchain Secured – Friday, March 16, 2018: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
  Before you leave Sacramento, be sure to attend this session to explore data privacy and compliance requirements of Blockchain. Volodymyr Paprotski of IBM takes you through platform considerations for deploying your Blockchain implementation and discuss options for enhancing security for deployments in the cloud and on-premise.

Be sure to check out the full agenda for additional sessions.