Business technology major IBM is the leader in the blockchain sector, well ahead of competitors such as Microsoft and Accenture, according to a survey from Juniper Research.
Blockchain Technology Leaders
# IBM
# Microsoft
# Accenture
Juniper’s Blockchain Enterprise Survey received response from almost 400 company founders, executives, managers and IT leaders.
43 percent ranked IBM first – more than twice the proportion selecting second-placed Microsoft (20 percent) — amongst enterprises either actively considering, or in the process of deploying blockchain technology.
The survey finding reflected IBM’s R&D engagement with initiatives such as Hyperledger and its list of blockchain clients across an array of key verticals and use cases, including banking, asset tracking and the music industry.
67 percent already invested more than $100,000 by the end of 2016, while 91 percent would be spending at least this amount in 2017 — amongst respondents who were prepared to state their levels of investment in blockchain.
This suggested most initial investments had delivered results that were sufficiently encouraging for companies to pursue more extensive trials and/or integrations.
However, the accompanying report urged companies to focus on private blockchains for commercial deployments, rather than utilise public chains such as Bitcoin. Most corporate applications would require the capability to restrict access to permissioned users, while companies would also need to have a degree of control over the development of the blockchain on which their systems have become dependent.
Research author Dr Windsor Holden said: “Even if companies conduct initial testing using a public blockchain, in most cases the shortcomings of these chains should disqualify them from many use cases, including financial settlement, public sector deployments, logistics and land registry.”
