Middleware Consulting International

IBM Cloud confidential computing capabilities are designed to protect mission-critical decentralized finance (DeFi) data and applications in a cloud environment

ARMONK, N.Y. and ZUG, Switzerland, Jan. 26, 2021 — IBM and DIA announced today that DIA migrated its platform to IBM Cloud and is leveraging IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services to manage how financial data is sourced, stored, processed and published. IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services is a hybrid cloud offering designed to deliver sophisticated encryption capabilities to help secure highly sensitive data, which is especially important in the age of hybrid cloud. The migration of DIA’s platform to a cloud environment backed by IBM Cloud confidential computingcapabilities is designed to protect data and applications from potential malicious inside and external attacks.

DIA is located in Crypto Valley in Zug, Switzerland and is an open-source financial information platform that incentivizes the sourcing and validation of data and provides the data via traditional APIs as well as oracles. Oracles are the third-party trust mechanisms that allow smart contracts to receive data from sources outside of the blockchain.

Data security is key for success of the fast-growing decentralized finance space
DeFi is an emerging area of digital finance that leverages blockchain-based smart contracts to execute and validate transactions, rather than relying on centralized financial institutions. As the industry grows, transparent data sources and oracles become critical to its reliability and success. Data sources that can be compromised and provide little transparency can lead malicious actors to manipulate attacks on DeFi platforms. To help mitigate this risk, DIA is leveraging the IBM Cloud – the industry’s most secure and open public cloud for business.

IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services help enable protection and privacy of data infrastructure
Using IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services, DIA can help provide technical assurance to its clients and users that their workloads are secured by protecting backend infrastructure against attacks on hardware, servers, applications and data layers. By taking advantage of ‘Keep Your Own Key’ (KYOK) and confidential computing capabilities delivered via hybrid cloud capabilities from IBM, DIA can protect data with complete authority for their data and workloads.

IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services provide confidential computing capabilities designed to enable data integrity and confidentiality for current and future workloads within hybrid cloud environments by employing isolation and encryption in security-rich enclaves to run cloud software.

This concept allows the platform’s users to retain sole access to their crypto keys – meaning not even IBM can access them – and helps mitigate the risk of malicious actors viewing or modifying the confidential data. Built on IBM LinuxONE, by using IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services, DIA has access to the highest level of security offered commercially by any cloud provider in the industry for cryptographic modules.

“IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services, confidential computing capabilities and IBM LinuxONE enable us to help implement a high security standard in the oracle landscape,” says Samuel Brack Co-Founder and CTO at DIA. “Being able to assure that no third party can view or manipulate our off-chain computing operations effectively protects DIA and its users from potential malicious inside and outside attacks.”

“As reliance on data grows, especially in the era of hybrid cloud, the need for cutting-edge security to protect digital assets becomes even more critical,” said Hillery Hunter, IBM Fellow, VP & CTO, IBM Cloud. “On its mission to source and validate financial data, DIA’s move toward a confidential computing environment bolsters security for all existing participants within its ecosystem. Now, DIA can work with clients in highly regulated industries and address their higher demand for confidentiality as they access their open source financial information platform.”

DIA continues to explore opportunities to increase security, scalability and compliance of data delivery for both institutional and DeFi actors to help grow the ecosystem and to further increase trust in the still nascent DeFi industry.

Online sales inquiries increase 59%; car buying experience puts prospective customers in the driver’s seat

ARMONK, N.Y. and LONDON, Jan. 14, 2021 — IBM and Audi UK, one of the world’s leading premium automotive manufacturers, collaborated to redesign Audi’s website to deliver a far more engaging digital customer experience. During the course of 2020, Audi has seen a 59% increase in UK online sales inquiries despite an almost 30% industry decline in new UK car sales during the pandemic.

With 90% of its car purchases starting online, Audi UK turned to IBM iX, the business design arm of IBM Global Business Services, to help it reimagine its customers’ digital journey from initial inquiry to ownership. COVID-19 has made “contact-less” online experience paramount as car dealerships had to close or limit in-person operations.

Audi UK’s digital transformation unified its mobile and desktop shopping experiences, enabled by a cloud platform and supported by the latest marketing insights data from Adobe Analytics and agile software development practices.

Audi UK tailors the customers’ online experience to their prime motivations for car-buying – be it price, driving experience, technology or safety. Visitors are now asked fewer questions, can reach relevant information more quickly and are offered more contact options to take their inquiry further than they could before.  Audi UK broke its own online sales inquiries record three times in June 2020 alone.

Antony Roberts, Head of Digital at Audi UK, says: “In a matter of 12 months, our leads have grown exponentially and our sales conversions have improved. We have gone from being poor in terms of the data analytics to being incredibly rich. Through our collaboration with IBM, Audi UK now has the most effective cloud-based online platform across the entire VW Group, building a smarter experience for customers interacting with our brand.”

Like most organizations, Audi’s IT architecture was built over many years and had become challenging to maintain. Applying the agile, user-focused IBM Garage Methodology, the Audi and IBM iX team co-created a strategic roadmap for their digital transformation, resulting in new customer-centric tools designed to enhance the user experience. IBM implemented Adobe Experience Manager along with Adobe Analytics to facilitate faster content-led experiences on their website that helped enable Audi to make business and customer-experience decisions based on data rather than assumptions, with a full view into how consumers interact with the new site:

• IBM built the Audi analytics platform using Adobe Analytics which has helped provide actionable marketing insights, and pinpoints site performance improvement opportunities, resulting in Audi reducing customer submission errors by 90%.
• Audi content editors are now able to complete everyday changes themselves, freeing developers to focus on more complex tasks. Audi has created libraries of reusable components that has reduced initial setup time of new features from weeks to minutes.
• Adopting more agile practices, developers are now able to deliver functionality up to 75% faster than before; new solutions built this year include a test-drive booking application, a vehicle maintenance scheduler and a part-exchange calculator.

Debbie Vavangas, IBM Global Garage lead, IBM iX, said: “Audi has prided itself on its commitment to apply smart design across its business. With the COVID-19 pandemic up-ending the way consumers make large purchases, there was a critical need to apply its design principles to its customers’ digital experiences. By embracing cloud technologies and data analytics, Audi UK helped accelerate its digital transformation with an online platform that delivers a smarter, more engaging experience that puts customers in the driver’s seat.”

New contract platform makes processing reinsurance contracts more efficient for Thai insurers

Bangkok, Thailand – 06 January 2021: IBM today announced that Thai Reinsurance Public Company Limited (Thai Re), Thailand’s leading technology-driven professional non-life reinsurer, has successfully launched “Insurer Network,” a reinsurance smart contract production network using IBM blockchain technology on IBM Cloud. Available through ThaiRe Innovation Co., Ltd., the Thai Re subsidiary and IT engine, “Insurer Network” is designed to bring transparency and speed to its clients in Thailand.

The insurance industry is in a period of disruption not seen in decades, with business restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic heightening the need for insurers to improve efficiencies and remove business barriers. Through the launch of its “Insurer Network” platform on IBM Cloud, Thai Re will streamline how it handles more than 10,000 annual reinsurance contracts with its insurance partners, making it easier for those insurers to grow their businesses.

Using blockchain technology on the highly secured IBM Cloud, the platform will allow Thailand’s insurance industry to gain efficiency and speed in processing the reinsurance contracts. Expected benefits will also include reduction of forgery risk through a traceable, highly-secured single version of truth documentation, and a decrease in potential data inaccuracies from manual multi-party reconciliation reinsurance contracts.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the need to digitally transform have urged organizations, not only in insurance industry but all, to bring efficiency to the way we work,” said Oran Vongsuraphichet, Chief Executive Officer of Thai Reinsurance Public Company Limited. “Thai Re has continuously focused on prudent underwriting professional portfolio management as well as business innovation throughout the past 40 years of our operations, and our ‘Insurer Network’ platform, now live, will today bring efficiency and transparency to all our stakeholders, while also opening the new chapter of insurance industry in Thailand.”

“The pandemic and the ongoing disruption has shown how important it is for businesses to be built for change and resilience,” said Patama Chantaruck, VP for Indochina Expansion and MD of IBM Thailand. “Thai Re’s ‘Insurer Network’ platform can improve operational scalability and flexibility, in addition to speed and transparency, to the ecosystem of insurers in Thailand. IBM is proud to support Thai Re and its growing platform network today with our blockchain technology on the highly-secured IBM Cloud environment.”

“Our goal is to make this platform beneficial to Thailand’s insurance industry while also serving the need of consumers. We plan to invite almost 100% of all insurers and brokers in Thailand to leverage this “Insurer Network” blockchain-based smart contract platform within the next two years,” said Pojaman Fuangaromya, Executive Vice President of Thai Reinsurance Public Company Limited and General Manager of ThaiRe Innovation Company Limited, “We want to be a strategic partner that helps our customers stay ahead of the game, and more quotation, underwriting claim and reconciliation capabilities will soon be added to our “Insurer Network” platform to bring the best reinsurance service innovation to our stakeholders.”