The latest in multicloud support, distributed consensus, security and more

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In the past year, the IBM Blockchain Platform has made great strides in providing the most advanced tooling and deployment flexibility for building enterprise blockchain networks. Last September, we released a fully multicloud version of IBM Blockchain Platform software optimized for RedHat OpenShift and able to run on any Kubernetes-based environment.

Today, we are excited to announce the latest release of the IBM Blockchain Platform which will enable you to achieve even greater network flexibility, security across your deployments, enhanced developer experience, and more.

Deploy the IBM Blockchain Platform across multiple environments

Here’s what you can look for in version 2.1.3:

• Distributed Raft consensus for greater resiliency

While we have supported Raft consensus since our IBM Blockchain Platform v2.0 release in June 2019, today you can deploy a fully distributed Raft ordering service for your network with an option to add or remove nodes from your service. This will allow you to achieve better multicloud distribution and resiliency by managing your ordering service across multiple clusters, data centers, and cloud infrastructures.

• Java smart contracts and enhanced development experience

We have made multiple improvements to the developer experience including full support for Java smart contracts that are built with the new contract API in The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric, the ability to create local custom network configurations with Ansible, and the ability to leverage Fabric’s private data collections on IBM Blockchain VS Code Extension to quickly create private data smart contracts.

• Multicloud deployment support for LinuxONE and IBM Z

IBM recently announced the availability of Red Hat OpenShift for IBM Z and LinuxONE, which has opened the doors to even more deployment options. We have taken this as an opportunity to enhance the multicloud capabilities of the IBM Blockchain Platform by providing support for the platform on RedHat OpenShift on LinuxONE and Linux on IBM Z, and enabling you to deploy Java chaincode on IBM Z System Hardware.

• Industry-leading security with integrated key management

In the world of blockchain networks, secure management of a network’s cryptographic keys is of utmost importance.  We now offer the ability to integrate IBM Blockchain Platform networks with IBM Cloud HSM (Hardware Security Module) or other types of HSM that support PKCS#11 API standard.

• Latest Hyperledger Fabric version 1.4.6

We are dedicated as ever to enhancing our platform with the latest features that Hyperledger Fabric has to offer, integrating these capabilities less than a month after the community code release. As part of our upgrade to Fabric V1.4.6, we are proud to be bringing in the network enhancements and performance improvements that will enable clients to experience better network stability across their blockchain platform deployments.

Finally, IBM Blockchain Platform has added several serviceability enhancements that simplify error handling of enrollment and certification authorization, providing a more seamless and intuitive experience.

This version release of IBM Blockchain Platform provides you with the best-in-class tools and paves the way for you to build your enterprise-grade blockchain network. Looking for ways to get started quickly and easily? Check out our article next week with tips for how to get up and running, and where to find the resources and expertise to help you through your journey.

How to get started with IBM Blockchain now