Success factor for digital transformation with blockchain

The Camelot Hypertrust Platform contains configurable IT solution building blocks that can be used to develop and evaluate targeted blockchain applications, for example for the optimization of logistics processes.

Our experience in this goes back several years. Long before SAP announced a cloud-based blockchain platform as part of its SAP Leonardo portfolio in May 2017, Camelot teams had already begun to gain extensive experience using the technology, which they then merged with newly created tools into a framework.

Customers benefit from this to a special extent. With the Camelot Hypertrust Platform, prototyping is possible within only a few weeks.

The platform is a central component of Digital Experience², Camelot's product and service portfolio for accelerated digital transformation of companies. The Hypertrust Platform also enables companies to realize very individual use cases.

Technological basis

Camelot's initial development projects with Ethereum blockchain technology aimed to optimize blockchain network management and distributed application development.

Features such as rapid network bootstrapping, smart contract deployment, service provisioning and integration, application development or DALM (Distributed Application Lifecycle Management) were on the roadmap from the very beginning.

Today, the Camelot Hypertrust Platform framework consists of an intuitive user interface based on SAPUI5 as well as Node.js middleware as a link between blockchain, smart contracts, user interfaces and external services - such as those of the SAP Leonardo IoT Platform.

The middleware also acts as a server for the operation of distributed applications. In its core, Camelot today supports not only Ethereum, but also other blockchain technologies such as Hyperledger Fabric and Multichain.

SAP Leonardo: Blockchain as a Service

Likewise, Camelot also integrates web services from the SAP-Baas (Blockchain as a Service) Leonardo platform, which itself supports various blockchain solutions.

The question may arise as to what added value the Hypertrust Platform has when SAP has a similar offering with its BaaS portfolio. The Camelot solution targets a clearly defined area that is deliberately not covered by SAP:

SAP strongly emphasizes the distributed operation of blockchain networks and thus also the connection of on-premise nodes to SAP BaaS instances. However, without offering the platform contained in Leonardo and its advantages on-premise.

This is where Camelot comes in: the Hypertrust Platform has similar features for smooth blockchain node operation as well as associated development tools, making it a perfect complement to the SAP BaaS offering - regardless of whether the operation is on-premise or in a managed cloud such as SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Cloud Foundry or AWS.

Intelligent interlocking

In our experience, hardly any use cases end up exclusively in the blockchain area. There are no isolated solutions when it comes to digitalization topics. Blockchain, IoT, AI, cloud, mobility - all these topics are closely interwoven.

This was another reason for the development of the Camelot Hypertrust Platform. Thanks to the latest concepts, it enables the necessary integration of all current megatrends. Customers already benefit from this today.

Camelot already realizes prototypes within the scope of its service and product portfolio Camelot Digital Experience² via this omnipotent tool without exception. The Hypertrust Platform also makes it possible to look beyond current development trends.

At a rapid pace, new blockchain technologies or related technologies can be analyzed and evaluated as part of proof-of-concept realizations. In the process, it is often possible to determine: Blockchain alone is not the panacea. Many use cases require the integration of other innovative technologies, for one thing.

On the other hand, a blockchain must often be supplemented by additional components, such as distributed file systems or databases for the high-performance storage of mass data, as well as "trusted computing" for the trustworthy processing of completely private data.

Camelot is therefore continuously developing the Hypertrust Platform in these areas as well.

Use case: patient data management

In the analog healthcare system, patients are usually not in possession of their data. Instead, they are distributed among various physicians or other healthcare facilities, without a patient having access to them or being able to dispose of them independently.

Using blockchain technology, this can now change. Each user could have his or her own patient record under his or her control (analogous to a Bitcoin account), which would contain all personal health data.

This data can only be accessed with the unambiguous permission of the patient via the smart contract. The electronic patient record in the blockchain allows the complete elimination of paper in healthcare processes.

The blockchain enables a vast health network where patients voluntarily provide health data to researchers - something that is almost impossible to achieve by traditional means.

Use case: Uber-like transportation management

The use case involves the transfer of the uber-
concept to logistics - especially in transport management. A collaboration marketplace based on blockchain enables flexible and secure ad hoc business relationships between previously unknown business partners.

All participants can be uniquely verified and identified through their blockchain account, which is required to participate in the marketplace. Orders are accepted by means of smart contracts within the marketplace. Resulting contracts between client and contractor are immutable and securely documented in the blockchain.

The concept offers large companies the flexible use of transport service providers without having to go through a lengthy prior tendering process. In addition, the market opens up for smaller companies or individual service providers that were previously unable to gain market access due to a lack of reputation.