The IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 enables a consortium of organizations to easily build and join a blockchain network on-prem, or on any private, public, or hybrid multicloud that uses Kubernetes. Customers can deploy their nodes on the cloud platform of their choice and connect to any IBM Blockchain Platform network, whether it is deployed on your own Kubernetes cluster or with the IBM Blockchain Platform for IBM Cloud. The IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 leverages Hyperledger Fabric v1.4.9 and v2.2.1 and supports deployment on multiple Kubernetes distributions.
IBM Blockchain Platform is based on Hyperledger Fabric v1.4.9 and v2.2.1 and is IBM's commercial distribution of Hyperledger Fabric. A key benefit of the platform is that IBM tests the open source code for security vulnerabilities daily and provides 24x7x365 support with SLAs appropriate for production environments.
Watch the following video for an introduction to blockchain and the IBM Blockchain Platform:
Video script
By now you've probably heard of the IBM Blockchain Platform, the leading permissioned enterprise blockchain solution in the world. But what is a permissioned blockchain? And what is the IBM Blockchain Platform? The modern world is interwoven and interactive place.
But under the surface it'still following some pretty old rules.
Jerry here on the left uses a different record keeping system than Door2Door Logistics on the right, which means they have to spend a lot of time figuring out what the truth is before they can make a deal.
This process is not just slow, it's vulnerable. A successful hack or other problem can mean records are lost forever. As a result, businesses sacrifice efficiency for security and lock their records away.
But what if businesses shared their records, and shared the burden of protecting them? What if Jerry's Modern Fabrics and Door2Door Logistics and their business partners never had to spend time arguing over who's right because every time an asset moves from one to the other everyone's records updated at the same time? And what if those records, once written, could never been changed?
This network, leveraging what's called Distributed Ledger Technology, already exists. It's an open blockchain network like Bitcoin. But there's a problem. Businesses don't necessarily want the records of their transactions shared with everyone'specially in a network like Bitcoin where users are unknown. In some industries, it's actually illegal to share data that way.
What Jerry's Modern Fabrics and Door2Door Logistics need is a permissioned blockchain like IBM Blockchain Platform, where businesses can form networks with known, established partners and still take advantage of the robustness and efficiency of blockchains. But this too creates a problem. Who owns this network? Who runs it? The answer is: no one does.
Once an IBM Blockchain network has been established, its rules and practices are managed collectively, mimicking the kind of consensus process that governs the way transactions themselves are approved and written to the ledgers in the network.
But the IBM Blockchain Platform doesn't just stop with permissions and identities, users also have the ability to create channels where a few members of a network can get together and transact privately.
Additionally, private data collections can be established, which allows a few channel members to share certain transactions just with each other, without needing a who'separate channel.
Because components are hosted in clusters that are owned and controlled by users, the IBM Blockchain Platform is naturally compliant with data residency rules.
All of these processes are managed through an award winning UI we call the console, which, along with custom APIs, makes the powerful open-source Hyperledger Fabric blockchain painless to use.
The console integrates seamlessly with the rest of the IBM Blockchain Platform suite, including a powerful VS Code extension which allows users to create and test smart contracts and applications and then package and install them on production networks.
Because the console can run on both IBM Cloud and any cloud supported by Red Hat's Open Shift, the console can run nearly everywhere and consoles in different clouds can connect to each other and to nodes deployed on Hyperledger Fabric.
But how many CAs, which create identities and define organizations, do I need?
How many peers, which host ledgers and have smart contracts installed on them, should I deploy on a channel to make sure I have no downtime?
Because you only pay for the compute you use, it's painless to transition from pilot programs to full production networks using the IBM Blockchain Platform. The IBM Garage is here to help assist you in finding the right configuration for every use case.
The world is moving too fast to keep doing things the old way. Go to cloud dot IBM dot com today and check out the IBM blockchain platform.
What IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 offers
The IBM Blockchain Platform provides a flexible management platform that runs on Kubernetes. The offering includes an award-winning management console that allows you to easily deploy blockchain components, build a multicloud blockchain network, and perform network management and maintenance.
This offering includes two deployment options:
Full platform
Includes the operator, management console, peer, CA, ordering node, and smart contract container images. The IBM Blockchain Platform management console can be used to create all of the fundamental components of a Hyperledger Fabric network: a Certificate Authority (CA), an ordering service, and peers, on your local cluster. We can also use your console to operate a distributed multicloud network by importing nodes that were deployed by using other consoles. For more information about the building blocks of Hyperledger Fabric networks, see the blockchain component overview.
IBM Blockchain images
For experienced Hyperledger Fabric customers, a purchase of IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 includes an entitlement to the peer, CA, ordering node, and smart contract container images that are signed and supported by IBM. These images are based on the open source Hyperledger Fabric code base and contain a number of enhancements for stability and serviceability. The images are bundled with support from IBM. The IBM Blockchain Platform management console and operator are not among the images that are included in this entitlement. See IBM Blockchain images for Hyperledger Fabric.
The IBM Blockchain Platform includes the following key features:
BUILD ---- Integrated developer experience
smart contracts in Node.js, Golang, Java, or JavaScript. Use the IBM Blockchain Platform Developer Tools to easily develop smart contracts locally or use Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces to develop them in the cloud. Leverage SDK integration with the console, and learn from our rich tutorials and samples. - Smart contract lifecycle
- Raft ordering service
- Private data collections that provide increased data privacy by ensuring that ledger data is shared to only authorized peers via the gossip protocol.
- Fabric Node OUs
- Service discovery, allowing you to dynamically discover and update how your application interacts with your network.
- Channel access control lists that allow you additional control of the governance of your channels and smart contracts.
OPERATE --- Total control of your deployments
Hardware Security Module (HSM) to generate and store the private key of your nodes. upgraded to 2.x. After which, the capabilities of your channels can also be increased to v2.0, allowing full access to the latest Fabric features like the smart contract lifecycle. GROW --- Scalability and flexibilit'strong>
Allocating resources. Pricing. Have questions and want to speak to an IBM Blockchain Platform expert? Schedule a consult now to learn more about how blockchain can transform your business.
Supported Platforms
The IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 can be deployed with the Kubernetes distributions on the following platforms:
Kubernetes distribution Version Hardware Tested configuration OpenShift Container Platform 4.5, 4.6 x86_64 4.5, 4.6 OpenShift Container Platform on IBM Cloud 4.4, 4.5 x86_64 4.4, 4.5 OpenShift Container Platform on LinuxONE 4.5 s390x 4.5 Kubernetes * v1.16 - v1.19 x86_64 v1.16, v1.17, v1.19 * To use IBM Kubernetes Service, we recommend that you check out the IBM Blockchain Platform for IBM Cloud offering unless you specifically require this offering. See Is IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 suitable for you.
If you are running on Azure Kubernetes Service, Amazon Web Services, Rancher, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service, or Google Kubernetes Engine, then you need to set up the NGINX Ingress controller and it needs to be running in SSL passthrough mode. See Considerations when using Kubernetes distributions.
License and pricing
Your IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 entitlement includes both the full platform and the IBM Blockchain images.
The entitlement does not include a Kubernetes distribution. You must procure that separately.
After you purchase an entitlement, you can access your My IBM dashboard to obtain your entitlement key for the offering. This key is required to deploy the release. When you choose this option, you are responsible for provisioning your own Kubernetes cluster.
See Pricing.
Considerations and limitations
- This offering does not include an entitlement to Red Hat OpenShift.
- You are responsible for the management of health monitoring, logging, and resource usage of your blockchain components.
- Users of this offering must manage their own security and infrastructure. The IBM Blockchain Platform does not provision or provide those services.
- Persistent storage is required. Host-local storage volumes are not supported.
- You must have the cluster admin role in order to deploy the product.
- The console creates nodes based on the Hyperledger Fabric v1.4.9 and v2.2.1 node images.
- We can deploy only one IBM Blockchain Platform console per Kubernetes namespace or OpenShift project. If you plan to create multiple blockchain networks, for example to create different environments for development, staging, and production, you should create a unique project or namespace for each environment.
- We cannot upgrade a deployed network from IBM Blockchain Platform for Multicloud to IBM Blockchain Platform v2.5.1.
- IBM Blockchain Platform is not supported on OpenShift Online.
- OpenShift customers can preview the IBM Blockchain Platform at no charge for 30 days when you select the free trial version available from the Red Hat Marketplace.
Installing IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1
The IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 uses a Kubernetes Operator to install the IBM Blockchain Platform console on the cluster and manage the deployment of your nodes. When you purchase the IBM Blockchain Platform license from Passport Advantage Online, you receive a token that provides access to IBM Entitlement registry. We can use your token with the commands and files that are provided in the installation guide to automatically download the Docker images and start the operator and console on the cluster. When you are ready to get started, see Deploy IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 on the OpenShift Container Platform. If you are deploying the platform on other Kubernetes distributions, see Deploy IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 on Kubernetes.
It is also possible to deploy the IBM Blockchain Platform behind a firewall, without having access to the public internet. See Deploying IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 on the OpenShift Container Platform behind a firewall. Otherwise, for other Kubernetes distributions see Deploying IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1 on Kubernetes behind a firewall.
Looking for a way to script the deployment of the service? Check out the Ansible playbooks, a powerful tool for scripting the deployment of components in your blockchain network.
Security Considerations
Because these components are deployed on your own infrastructure, you are responsible for managing their security. This includes important areas of securit'such as Identity and Access Management, key management, and data encryption. Review the following topic on Security for the list of considerations.
Getting support
For more information about how to get support on IBM Blockchain Platform, in addition to free blockchain developer resources and support forums that you can use to troubleshoot problems, see Getting support.
Next steps
When you are ready to learn how to deploy an instance of the IBM Blockchain Platform to your Kubernetes cluster see Getting started with IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.1.