Digital Transformation in Enterprise Architecture: How Is Blockchain
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Digital Transformation in Enterprise Architecture: How is blockchain useful? A client's journey to streamline and optimize its operating and development models through the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), crowdsourcing, and UI customization Introduction & background effectively employ its underlying components, Xerox Digital Experience (XDX; formerly known as One of several reasons why people are focusing so Xerox Information Management) commissioned much attention on blockchain is because of its its Solution Acceleration and Innovation Team perceived capability to uniquely provide all (SAI) to run a blockchain-based Proof of Concept participants in a given value chain a complete, (POC). Xerox partnered with Wipro, a company common, consistent, controlled, selectively with both significant blockchain experience and a permissioned, and (especially) ‘trusted’ view of all uniquely large crowdsourcing community (called data related to said value chain’s entire history “Topcoder”), to implement the POC. Wipro used and current state. As such, many companies, an early version of SAP Leonardo’s industries, and various consortia are running extensive experiments with blockchain-related Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) to implement the technology. POC’s blockchain capabilities as encoded on the Hyperledger Fabric open source protocol. From a To get past the hype surrounding blockchain and full stack perspective, Mongo DB, NodeJS, and help understand how Xerox might be able to ReactJS all played a role. Figure 1 shows the high-level solution architecture: User Interface gRPC Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain Network Layers Workflow Manager Transaction Blocks Device Manager UI Xerox Customer Ledger Data s Quality Assurance ’ RBAC I Device Lifecyle Data Engineer UI Handler JSON/ P A HTTPS n i Smart Contracts Shipping Carrier UI a gRPC h Device Lifecycle Management REST API c Device Region Mapping Warehouse k Device Partner Mapping Client c o Device Model Mapping Manager UI l Device Location Mapping B Salesperson UI Database Shipping APIs Manufacturer Configuration Transaction Blocks Carrier Engineer UI gRPC Customer Service UI Mongo • Printer Master data Wipro’s Blockchain Innovation Lab Rigger UI DB • Reference / Lookup Data • User / Roles Figure 1: The POC’s Architectural Model The POC’s technological focus was to evaluate From an Enterprise Architecture point of view, the values of specifically Distributed Ledger where you have many systems that hold the same Technology (DLT) and Smart Contracts or overlapping data, it becomes increasingly cross-database across the Xerox value chain for difficult to tell which data is the correct data and mid-volume printers. It demonstrates that Xerox identifying the ‘Golden Sources’. This issue is can use blockchain’s DLT capabilities to show a compounded when employing systems integrated single, unambiguous view of overlapping, parallel, with external systems that provide vital and corresponding data stored in and across supporting information. multiple systems at multiple companies by The purpose of this white paper is to enabling an enterprise-grade distributed contextualize and share the lessons learned from database architecture complimented by a new this POC so as to further enable others who want customized User Interface (UI) that would to adopt blockchain-related DLT technologies. In best optimize usage of these new data particular, we look herein to fundamentally interaction capabilities. challenge our hypothesis: that using blockchain-related technologies cross-value 3 chain will increase a given company’s ability for is common to see decisions based more on the successful Digital Transformation of their generating near-term revenue than on seemingly overall enterprise architecture. costly maintenance activities or operational upgrades that will not provide a clear, A Common Problem: Trying to make it understandable return in the short term. better makes it worse Conversely, enterprise architects typically do With many companies, as technology bloat occurs not have the authority to force enterprise-wise and human understanding declines, the quality, retirement, conversion, adoption, and cost, and delivery metrics of a given organization implementation of systems regardless of the are at risk of declining at an ever-accelerating immediate or long-term technical value, nor the rate. Even when tightly managed and optimized, collective enterprise funding to be each new feature, vendor, database, and system ultimately recaptured. can reduce a company’s ability to add the next As issues arise due to this proliferation of feature, vendor, database, or system and maintain redundant systems, businesses need solutions the existing ones. that allow various operational groups to agree on A typical situation faced by enterprise architects a single, trusted version of the data and a single plays out as follows: set of systems to support each business capability. Blockchain could provide a way. • A specific legacy system or process becomes an obvious, costly, time-consuming issue for a given business area or product line. Enter blockchain: The EA enablement solution? • The business takes action and allocates funds It has become common for people to think of for a new system to be designed and blockchain as a core element for “Digital implemented or procured. Transformation” as it is widely thought to address • The new system is optimal and made available many of the existing limitations in increasingly to the enterprise but is offered as optional and complex supply chain, business service, and data is not adopted by all regions and business lines management situations. because they are not required to and The core hypothesis has become that blockchain, additionally they would need to spend their own most specifically DLT & Smart Contracts, can budgets (e.g. to migrate or retire existing legacy provide the basis for both saved revenue and new systems, connect their systems’ databases to revenue streams by supporting new inter-system the new databases, etc.), which, in turn, they too orchestrations. While it’s important to note that often perceive as a penalty given the negative there are risks to deploy blockchain-based impact to their profit and loss (P&L) metrics. solutions at this time because the technology is • The new system becomes just another one immature agreed-to standards and have not yet among many similar systems and therefore emerged, these ‘known unknowns’ in the current adds to the overall complexity of the company’s landscape will most likely be resolved only via real Enterprise Architecture and creates more businesses doing real testing, using, and adopting problems than it solves. consistently over the next five-to-ten years within the realm of their overall digital transformation Of course, companies employ Enterprise and enterprise architecture strategies. As Michael Architecture (EA) to prevent just these types of Jordan said, “To learn to succeed, you must learn problems and it’s the enterprise architects’ role to to fail”. And while business leaders, especially design and deploy coherence and simplicity Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology throughout an organization. So why do systems Officers, are pressured to digitally transform at decay into complexity and why can’t the the risk of prospective corporate demise, we are enterprise architects prevent, or at least fix, still left with questions of whether using these problems? blockchain-based protocols now will result in the Typically, different business units, subsidiaries, addition of future costs and complexities. and regions within a large multi-national company But we believe that, at the end of the day, the will have independent authority to manage the unique abilities around decentralized database systems and vendors they use and in managing management (DLT), encryption, immutability, related budgets for upgrades and changes. So it transparency, and work process automation 4 (smart contracts) that blockchain enables are Why consider a blockchain-based foundational to many core EA aspirations and are Distributed Ledger versus a traditional worth experimentation. centralized Database? In an effort to test the viability of these outcomes, From a basic technology viewpoint, a DLT is a the promise of blockchain, and whether we might distributed database that’s used as a ledger to achieve a main goal of all enterprise architects – record business transactions that normally digital transformation – Xerox and Wipro chose a involve transfer of tangible or intangible assets. business problem to develop a blockchain-based Each time a transaction is completed, a new solution that would simultaneously test a DLT “block” of information is respectively added to the protocol (the open sourced Hyperledger Fabric), blockchain’s linear chain of blocks. Each block Smart Contracts, a BaaS provider (SAP’s represents a transaction and specific related Leonardo), user interface (UI) selection and user data. The new block documents the important experience (UX) development via Crowdsourcing. details about that new transaction and all related The following shows how an Enterprise elements and is irrevocably linked to the previous Architecture group can make the promise of block in the chain. If a transaction is not Digital Transformation and system optimization completed for whatever reason, no block is more likely using blockchain. created. Additionally, each node in the distributed database stores an encrypted copy of the entire blockchain