AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog

How AWS Blockchain Partners Are Enabling New Ways of Doing Business

By Ale Flores, Global Segment Lead for Blockchain at AWS

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, opportunities for companies and individuals to interact and transact across borders, time zones, and channels have grown. But with this growth,we have seen greater cost, risk, and inefficiencies in some transactions.

At Amazon Web Services (AWS), we believe distributed ledger technology (DLT) such as blockchain can help customers simplify transactions and conduct efficient, secure interactions with different parties around the globe. Fortunately, the large and growing AWS Partner Network (APN) Blockchain Partners shares our passion for putting customers first and driving innovation.

Together, we are setting out to discover how blockchain solutions on AWS can address customer pain points and enable new ways of doing business.

In this APN Blog series, you’ll learn about the work we are doing with APN Consulting and Technology Partners to educate customers about the benefits of blockchain—and moving beyond hype to real solutions. We’re excited to tell you more about our focus on blockchain and highlight some of the forward-thinking APN Partners working with AWS to address common business use cases.

AWS Blockchain Partners and customers are using blockchain technology to:

  • Empower farmers through new streams of revenue by enabling them to transparently sell their field data.
  • Provide banking access to rural communities in the Philippines and drive domestic remittances.
  • Simplify healthcare accumulators and explore ways to improve the way healthcare companies interact to better serve patients.
  • Invigorate the precious metals industry and digitize the trade of gold.
  • Limit contract disputes in the oil and gas industry.
  • Provide supply chain transparency.
  • Change the way we vote.

Learn more about AWS Blockchain Partners >>

Blockchain Basics: Distributed, Trusted, Secure, Immutable, and Scalable

Blockchain is a tool that enables transactions between multiple independent parties—such as online transactions for everything from cryptocurrencies to real-estate title transfers—to be more secure and trustworthy, without the need for a third-party intermediary.

Blockchain works by establishing a peer-to-peer network where each participant maintains a database—a ledger—of all the network’s transactions. These transactions are compiled into “blocks,” which are then linked together using cryptographic hashes forming a “chain.” The cryptographically-connected blocks create an underlying data layer that provides a common, unified view of information for parties who can access the data, giving organizations a new way of establishing trusted business networks.

We’re seeing customers address many common use cases across industries using blockchain on AWS, including:

  • Tracking and recording traceability of physical items. Modern-day supply chains have gotten longer, more global, and more complex. Traditional, centralized models of data management create supply chain silos that break the provenance and audit trails of physical items. This increases costs for participants and makes reconciliation among parties difficult or impossible. With blockchain, you can create a better network in which participants can access a common data layer and share a near-real-time view of activities and data with their counterparts.
  • Tracking digital ownership. In the digital world, blockchains can be used to prove ownership and rights to access data. For instance, a patient’s medical records can be secured using a blockchain’s public-private key mechanism so individual patients can retain full control over their medical history and share it with the physicians they choose.
  • Distributing trust. Blockchains help multiple independent and autonomous entities conduct transactions in ways that follow agreed-upon sets of rules. This ability to reach consensus creates an environment of trust that removes the reliance on a middleman.

Blockchain on AWS

Curious to see a cool use case in action? Check out how blockchain technology could change the way we vote:

We are already seeing the use case highlighted in this video in action via APN Advanced Consulting Partner Luxoft, which recently announced its partnership with the city of Zug, Switzerland, and the nearby Lucerne University of Applied Sciences to create the first customizable blockchain-based e-voting system to be used by a major economy.

Using AWS gives customers a fast, simple way to develop and deploy secure blockchain solutions cost effectively and at scale, while still taking advantage of the comprehensive suite of AWS services and third-party solutions. With an AWS-based blockchain solution, developers can deploy, or requisition, the underlying blockchain and connectivity to supplemental applications with one click. Developers can access this capability via APN Technology Partner solutions such as Kaleido, Sawtooth, R3 Corda, BlockApps, and more.

Plus, developers can also take advantage of the recently released AWS Blockchain Templates, which provide a fast, easy way to create and deploy secure blockchain networks using popular open source protocols like Ethereum and Hyperledger.

What brings it all together for many customers? Working with APN Partners who provide the expertise to help customers build world-class blockchain solutions.

APN Partners: Driving Blockchain Innovation Globally

We are proud of our AWS blockchain partner community, and for good reason. APN Partners with expertise in blockchain are driving some of the most innovative proof of concept (POC) and production-ready blockchain solutions we’ve seen to-date across industries, including financial services, healthcare, energy, and retail. Many of these partners are also APN Premier Consulting Partners, meaning they’re one of a select group of partners to meet the stringent training, customer success, and revenue requirements needed to qualify for the APN Premier Partner designation.

Take Accenture, for example. A leader in technology innovation and its application, Accenture works with partners across the blockchain ecosystem to deploy new and innovative solutions to its clients. Recently, Accenture worked with a major aerospace/defense company to develop a DLT-based solution to provide new levels of transparency to the company’s manufacturing supply chain. The business requirements included specialized high-security needs, so having increased certainty quickly generated business value.

This track-and-trace solution was developed with Hyperledger and other blockchain-related partners, then then deployed on AWS. Accenture chose AWS because of its ease of use for both the developers and clients interacting with the solution.

Blockchain on AWS Stories:

Check Out These APN Partners Working with Blockchain on AWS:

Become an APN Blockchain Partner

If you’re an APN Partner looking to build a blockchain practice on AWS, check out the AWS Navigate Program. AWS Navigate provides a prescriptive path for APN Partners to build a specialized practice on AWS. Through a series of foundational and specialized e-learnings, APN Partners unlock advanced resources and step-by-step guidance for building a successful practice or solution on AWS within the specialized area.

The AWS Blockchain Navigate track offers APN Partners the guidance to become AWS experts and deploy innovative solutions using blockchain technology on behalf of AWS Customers. To learn more and get started, have two (2) of your business contacts and two (2) technical contacts start the blockchain-on-AWS trainings.