IBM has a new Blockchain platform

Interest in blockchain has never been greater, driving more focus on how it can be used in the enterprise. In fact, more than half of the world's big corporations are either actively considering, or are in the process of, deploying blockchain technology. And two thirds of firms state they expect the technology to be integrated into their systems by the end of 2018, according to Juniper Research.

In a recent blog post written by IBM Blockchain Services' General Manager, Jason Kelley, said, "To support clients at every stage in their journey, today we’re launching three new consulting services offerings and the IBM Blockchain Platform Starter Plan, an inaugural, low-cost plan for clients, developers, and startups to quickly develop, operate, and govern networks on the IBM Blockchain Platform."

New IBM Blockchain consulting services include:

• Blockchain Starter Services: helps organizations understand their key challenges and prioritize appropriate business use case for blockchain. This combines advisory services, business value design, and the rapid development of a minimum viable network in 12 weeks or less.
  
  
• Blockchain Acceleration Services: works to commercialize networks and produce tangible business outcomes by providing the essential governance and commercial models, systems integration, and process reengineering to help entire industries address specific business challenges. 
  
  
• Blockchain Innovation Services: business innovation services provide the consulting and technical expertise to create new applications and business models on top of established networks. It also works to combine other advanced technologies such as AI, automation, IoT and cloud to extend blockchain into new business use cases and ecosystems.

In addition to this, Jason went on in the blog post to talk about the new beta launch of IBM Blockchain Platform Starter Plan: IBM Blockchain Platform Starter Plan is currently in beta and provides the same experience as the production ready IBM Blockchain Platform enterprise plan, plus a quickstart network configuration, sample apps and Hyperledger Fabric 1.1 and Composer which make it easy to develop, govern and operate a blockchain network in minutes. Organizations or developers of all sizes who are interested in permissioned blockchain can sign up here to participate in the IBM Blockchain Platform Starter Plan beta program."