It wasn't that long ago that Cyber Security and Resilience translated to High Availability and Disaster Recovery. Driven by the Sensitivity, Confidentiality, and Availability requirements of the Data, Systems and Applications were built to have the highest possible availability. That requirement came from the times when an entire end to end Business Process ran in a single standalone Application.
Fast forward to today, end to end Business Processes can begin in one Application on one side of the world and pass through Applications somewhere else in the world and finish in Applications in an altogether different location in the world. The beginning of the Business Process can be Sensors and Things at the Edge, producing Data, Events, something has happened and triggered the Business Process.
This creates several problems:
Protect the Originality & Integrity of the Data - When the Thing, the IoT Sensor, let's say critical infrastructure, something like a Base Station in a Telco Network, or a piece of the Electrical Grid for a Utility Company, when the Thing, the IoT Sensor creates the piece of Data, a Record of something that just happened we need to make sure that piece of Data cannot be modified or destroyed and therefore protect the originality and integrity of the Data
Moving the Data from the Edge to the SAP Application in the Cloud or DataCenter and at the same time Protect the Originality & Integrity of the Data - we need to get the Data from the Thing, the IoT Sensor, to the SAP Application in the Cloud or DataCenter and we need to be sure, to have surety that the Data which arrives in the SAP Cloud or DataCenter is exactly the same Data that was created at the Edge at the Thing, the IoT Sensor. If this Data gets changed in any way, we won't be able to trust the Business Processes and Insights which are depending on that Data. And so, in the activity of moving the Data we need to make sure that that piece of Data cannot be modified or destroyed and therefore protect the originality and integrity of the Data
And so, here we are, the biggest threat to Enterprise SAP Applications is no longer the High Availability, the Server crashing, that's all under control and possible to take care of,
The biggest threat to IoT & Enterprise SAP Applications is Cyber Security and Cyber Attacks
A common thought is that a hacker, or cyber attacker wants to modify Data for their own financial benefit, for example change the destination bank account number for invoice payments, yes those threats are still there, but biggest threat is that a hacker or cyber attacker deletes or modifies Master and Transaction Data resulting that the Master and Transactional Data does not have integrity and cannot be used, and if the attacker succeeded to modify the Backup as well, then the Enterprise could be out of business for a long time trying to pick up the pieces and get up and running again.
The biggest threat to IoT & Enterprise SAP Applications is Cyber Attacks rendering the Master and Transaction Data un-trustworthy
And that's where the Enterprise Blockchain comes in, and this blog is going to explain why.
Ok let's goπ
Welcome to the eighth blog in this series on Enterprise Blockchain and SAP. If you have been following the previous blogs then you'll be familiar with the blog template. We'll begin by talking about and framing the problem, in this case Data Cyber Security for IoT and SAP and then go in to identifying the enabling technology which will have the best capabilities and be the most appropriate to solving the problem all the way through to the reference solution architecture to be able to implement the solution.
The blog is going to break the subject down in to three sections:
Section 1.0: The What is it of IoT & SAP, and Enterprise Blockchain
Section 2.0: The Why is it, of IoT & SAP, and Enterprise Blockchain
Section 3.0: The How is it, of IoT & SAP, and Enterprise Blockchain
tl:dr
If you want to protect the originality and integrity and confidentiality of IoT data, from the Edge to Insights and SAP Business Processes, then the answer is an Enterprise Blockchain Database, where the Enterprise Blockchain Tenants are running on Edge Hosts/Servers and in the SAP BTP Business Technology Platform, enabling Enterprise Blockchain Database to protect the Data from the Edge Hosts/Servers to the SAP BTP.
[the finer technical details of getting the data from the Enterprise Blockchain to SAP Asset Management and S/4HANA will be clearer possibly after Sapphire Orlando in June. In the mean time there are a number of ways to get the Data in and out of the Enterprise Blockchain running on the SAP BTP Kyma Service]
Enterprise Blockchain is both:
. a Secure Store
. a Secure Communication Channel
Enterprise Blockchain is the Cyber Security for Enterprise IoT Data from the Edge to Insights π
and now.... the long answer...
Section 1.0: The What is it of IoT & SAP, and Enterprise Blockchain
What is IoT Internet of Things ?
History of IoT
In 2021, there were over 10 billion IoT devices in the world, and by 2025, the IDC expects global data generation to exceed 73 zettabytes β which is equal to 73 trillion gigabytes. Although we canβt really quantify digital data in physical terms, we can say that if all that data were converted into 1990s floppy disks β and they were laid out end to end β they could go to the moon and back over 5,000 times.
What are some IoT applications?
Looking at IoT applications, which are sometimes described as use cases, can help ground the discussion about what IoT is. Broadly, IoT applications occur in one of nine settings.
- Human health. Devices can be attached to or inserted inside the human body, including wearable or ingestible devices that monitor or maintain health and wellness, assist in managing diseases such as diabetes, and more.
- Home. Homeowners can install devices such as home voice assistants, automated vacuums, or security systems.
- Retail environments. Devices can be installed in stores, banks, restaurants, and arenas to facilitate self-checkout, extend in-store offers, or help optimize inventory.
- Offices. IoT applications in offices could entail energy management or security for buildings.
- Standardized production environments. In such settings, including manufacturing plants, hospitals, or farms, IoT applications often aim to gain operating efficiencies or optimize equipment use and inventory.
- Custom production environments. In customized settings like those in mining, construction, or oil and gas exploration and production, IoT applications might be used in predictive maintenance or health and safety efforts.
- Vehicles. IoT can help with condition-based maintenance, usage-based design, or presales analytics for cars and trucks, ships, airplanes, and trains.
- Cities. IoT applications can be used for adaptive traffic control, smart meters, environmental monitoring, or managing resources.
- Outside. In urban environments or other outdoor settings, such as railroad tracks, autonomous vehicles, or flight navigation, IoT applications could involve real-time routing, connected navigation, or shipment tracking.
Other real-world examples abound. IoT solutions are being used in myriad settings: in refrigerators, to help restaurants optimize their food-compliance processes; in fields, to track livestock; in offices, to track how many and how often meeting rooms are used; and beyond.
What is the economic impact of IoT?
The potential value of IoT is large and growing. By 2030, we estimate it could amount to up to $12.5 trillion globally. That includes the value captured by consumers and customers of IoT products and services.
The potential economic value of IoT differs based on settings and usages, with factory settings and human health applications representing outsize shares of this total. Factory settings could generate $1.4 trillion to $3.3 trillion by 2030, or just over a quarter of the total value potential. IoT economic impact in human health settings could reach around 14 percent of the total estimated value.
Another way of looking at IoTβs value is to explore use-case clusters (similar uses adapted to different settings). Some of the most common use cases account for a sizable share of IoTβs potential economic value:
- operations optimization, which is basically making the various day-to-day management of assets and people more efficient (41 percent)
- health (15 percent)
- human productivity (15 percent)
- condition-based maintenance (12 percent)
Other clusters include sales enablement, energy management, autonomous vehicles (the fastest-growing cluster), and safety and security.
[Source: What is IoT: The Internet of Things explained | McKinsey]
Like everything else we do in Enterprise IT,
IoT Internet of Things is about Data
What is Enterprise Blockchain ?
Enterprise Blockchain is both:
. a Secure Store
. a Secure Communication Channel
McKinsey & Company, in their December 2023 Featured Insights Publication, gave a beautiful description of what is unique and special about Blockchain, "Blockchain is a secure database shared across a network of participants, where up-to-date information is available to all participants at the same time". If we just pause for a moment and let that sink in, and think about what that means, to Business Processes, to Collaboration, to System Resilience, we start to see what is so special about Blockchain Databases and Distributed Ledger Technology.
In these previous blogs, I made a deep dive in to what Enterprise Blockchain is and why we should be positioning it in our Enterprise Architecture:
Why I love SAP and Blockchain Databases and why you should tooπ
SAP Enterprise Architecture: Let the Use Case find the Blockchain π
and in a nutshell, Enterprise Blockchain is:
. The Digital Transformation of Information Security into Cyber Security
. The Next Generation Data Integrity, Originality, Confidentiality Protection
. Re-imagining Information Security
. Natively, out of the box, due to its special characteristics the strongest, hardest, most resilient Enterprise Database product
To wrap up this section:
. Iot Internet of Things is about Data
. Enterprise Blockchain is about Cyber Security of Data
Section 2.0: The Why is it, of IoT & SAP, and Enterprise Blockchain
So, why does IoT, Internet of Things, in the Enterprise IT, when implemented in conjunction with SAP Applications need Enterprise Blockchain ?
IoT is about Data, and the Data in most cases originates from the Edge and outlying parts of the Network.
The problem is the Cyber Security of getting the Data from the Edge and outlying parts of the Network to the safe zones of the SAP Cloud and yours or SAP's DataCenters.
IoT's biggest risk is that the Data coming from the IoT Devices is not trustworthy. In the same way as asking the wrong person for directions can leave you going all around the houses, if the Data coming from the IoT Devices, has been changed/contaminated/modified/poluted/made unreliable, whether purposefully through malicious acts or cyber attack, or accidentally, the result will be IoT's Data insights which cannot be trusted, and the result of that could be catastrophic. Just imagine not being able to trust the temperature of refrigeration during pharmaceutical and food production !
If we cannot protect and the originality and integrity of IoT Data, secure it, then how can we trust IoT Data ?
IoT is about the Data
So, if we are going to do IoT and include IoT Data in our Business Processes and Insights, then we need to care for and protect the Data that is coming from IoT Devices.
Imagine, as described in the previous blog, when we let the Use Case find the Enterprise Blockchain, we have a Business Requirement, a Business Demand, to make IoT Data trustable.
When we look in our Enterprise Technology Standards, and we look for the Technology Standard in our Enterprise Portfolio which is positioned to bring the strongest protection to Data, we find the Enterprise Blockchain.
Comparison Enterprise Blockchain Database and Traditional Legacy Database - atkrypto.io
In the previous blogs, we have discussed in detail about the special characteristics of Enterprise Blockchain and just why it natively out of the box protects the integrity of data to a level that legacy database products cannot do, in a nutshell....
IoT is about Data
IoT is about the Data that goes in to the SAP Applications in the Cloud and Data Centers
This means IoT Device Data depends on a Database or a Datastore
What kind of Database do IoT Devices produces ? What capabilities does the Database for the IoT Devices Data need to have ?
1. It must not be possible to modify the Data in the Database which comes from the IoT Devices - the Database needs to be immutable
2. The Data in the Database, the integrity and originality of that Data must be protected to the highest level that is technically possible
3. The Data must be available with the highest availability, the Database must be resilient to attack
When we look in our Enterprise Technology Standards we find 1 Technology Standard in the Enterprise which has those capabilities, and that is..... Enterprise Blockchain
Enterprise Blockchain ticks those three boxes...
This is why, Enterprise Blockchain is the enabler of trustable outcomes from Enterprise IoT Devices' Data.
atkrypto.io what is a blockchain
But there's more than that, IoT Devices can produce a lot of data, and the volumes of data can be big.
And this is why, in this blog we take the Enterprise Blockchain Technology story one level further and we introduce the:
Enterprise Blockchain Wallet
Off-Chain Data Storage
In the Enterprise Blockchain Platforms, the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet is used for Off-Chain storage of big data and in the following paragraphs we will explain why.
What is the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, and what is Off-Chain Data Storage and why would we use them and why do we need them ?
As we have explained in a previous blog, the Enterprise Blockchain Database, the Distributed Ledger, can be looked at simply as a Database Table (which is replicated and synchronised across multiple Servers) and in principle it stores the Data like this:
Blockchain is a very simple form of database atkrypto.io
This is fine, and suited to what we call Structured Data, and as AWS nicely describe, Structured Data is information like words and numbers. This kind of data is perfectly suited to being stored in an Enterprise Blockchain Database and also a legacy Database. Examples of the data would Names, Addresses, Phone Numbers, Product Information etc.
But, IoT Devices can produce a lot of Data, for example, there could be photographs proving that general waste was tipped at the correct certified location, photographs and in large volumes would be too big to be stored on the Enterprise Blockchain Database itself.
And that's ok, Enterprise Blockchain Platforms are ready for that, and have been designed to store both Structured Data and Data which is in files which are so big that they cannot be stored in the Enterprise Blockchain Database itself, for example the photographs from a Waste Truck's onboard camera proving that waste was responsibly tipped in the correct location and taken at the same time as recording GPS location coordinates proving the location of the Waste Truck.
So, if we can't store the large photographs files in large quantities to the Enterprise Blockchain Database, then how, in an Enterprise Blockchain Platform do we store large files of Data ?
Voila.... bring in the Enterprise Blockchain Platform Wallet. The best Enterprise Blockchain Platform products include what is called the Enterprise Blockchain Platform Wallet, or to make it shorter, the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet.
The Enterprise Blockchain Wallet enables us to store large Data, like large Files safely and securely off the chain, or 'Off-Chain'.
But if we store the large Data files Off-Chain in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, then how do we also have them some how on the Enterprise Blockchain Database ?
The way this works is elegant, in any decent Enterprise Blockchain Platform, the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet location is completely configurable, and could be anywhere from SAP HANA Cloud (Data Lake), or for example multiple hyperscaler object stores, such as Amazon S3, OSS (Alicloud Object Storage
Service), SAP HANA Cloud, Data Lake, and Azure Blob Storage.
The configurable Enterprise Blockchain Wallet of the Enterprise Blockchain Platform looks like this:
Enterprise Blockchain Platform - Enterprise Blockchain Wallets - Configurable Enterprise Wallets - atkrypto.io
Ok, so we've got the IoT Data stored in the (configurable) Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, but what about securing the IoT Data ? Obviously the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet storage location has built in security, for example the SAP HANA Cloud, the AWS S3 Buckets, but we need more than the out of the box security of these products, the reason we are using the Enterprise Blockchain Database is because of the amazing security strengths that it natively out of the box has, and so, what about the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, doesn't the Enterprise Blockchain Platform have some cool super hard way of protecting the data in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet ?
Well yes it does, this is the magic of Enterprise Blockchain Database 'Off-Chain' storage in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet. This is so unique to Blockchain Technologies.
What happens is this, when store data in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, the Enterprise Blockchain Platform software runs a hash algorithm over the data that we have stored and the data, and the large file gets hashed:
The data or the file in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet gets hashed, and then, that hash is stored in the Enterprise Blockchain Database.
This means we now have a unique hash of that data or file, and if anybody or anything makes even the tiniest teeniest change to that data or file, next time we run a hash over that data or file the result will be different that the original hash which is safely stored in the Enterprise Blockchain Database and this is how we will know that the data has been changed and we cannot trust the Data and therefore we cannot use it for our Enterprise IoT Data processing and Insights..
On the other hand, if just before we load the data in to the SAP Enterprise Applications, eg SAP Asset Performance Management and SAP S/4HANA, from the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, if we run a hash over the data and the hash result is the same as we have in the Enterprise Blockchain Database, then we will know we can trust the Data and we can use it in our SAP Applications and we will have trustable IoT Data.
Enterprise Blockchain Wallet Data Hashes Stored in the Enterprise Blockchain Database - atkrypto.io
And this is why, for all of these reasons,
Trustable Enterprise IoT Data depends on Data being stored in the Enterprise Blockchain
But that's not the end of the Why IoT Data needs Enterprise Blockchain.
As we showed at the beginning of the blog in this picture:
As the picture shows, we have an Enterprise Blockchain Database Tenant installed on a Server Host at the Edge of the Network AND we have an Enterprise Blockchain Data Tenant installed on the SAP BTP Kyma Runtime.
The consequence of this is that we have a distributed Enterprise Blockchain Database table which stretches from the Edge of the Network where the IoT Devices are all the way across the Network to the SAP BTP and DataCenter.
This means we have Enterprise Blockchain Data Protection from the source where the IoT Devices are to the Insights and Business Processes where the SAP Applications are.
We have taken the Enterprise Blockchain to the Data at the source at the IoT Devices instead of taking the IoT Device's Data across all of the Networks to the safety of the SAP BTP and DataCenter. This is because we need to store the Data in the Enterprise Blockchain as close as possible to the source of the Data. The closer the Enterprise Blockchain Tenant is to the source of the Data, the safer the Data will be, it's as simple as that. Enterprise Blockchain is the next generation Cyber Security for IoT Data, and we need to minimise the amount of exposure IoT Data has to previous generation security technologies and approaches.
And this is why we say, Enterprise Blockchain is a Secure Communication Channel, because instead of integrating Applications sending and replicating Data across Networks, we are sharing the Data across the Enterprise Blockchain and the Enterprise Blockchain is the Secure Communication Channel.
To conclude this section, the Why to, of IoT and Enterprise Blockchain, IoT Data needs to Trustable.
Enterprise Blockchain, due to its native super strong security strength when used as a store of Data enables IoT Data to be Trustable, and the Enterprise Blockchain Software needs be installed as close as possible to the source of the IoT Data, as close as possible to the IoT Devices.
Section 3.0: The How is it, of IoT & SAP, and Enterprise Blockchain
Now that we know why trustable Enterprise IoT needs the Enterprise Blockchain Database to protect the integrity and originality of the Data, how do we implement it today ?
Well that's easy, here are the ingredients and the recipe...
Ingredients, you're going to need:
Data Source(s) eg
IoT Devices which are either REST or MQTT (this could be other protocols and transfer mechanisms depending upon the required Adapters)
Large Storage for Large Data and the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet
Enterprise Blockchain Platform and specifically one which is capable of running Tenants as close to the Source of the IoT Data as possible at the Edge. We do NOT want to send the IoT Data across the Internet to a Blockchain somewhere in the Cloud, that would defeat the object of the exercise.
These are the basic ingredients, the data from the IoT Devices will be stored either Off-Chain in the SAP HANA Cloud (Data Lake) which will also be the Enterprise Blockchain Platform (configurable) Wallet, or On-Chain in the Enterprise Blockchain Platform Database Ledgers, this Enterprise Blockchain Database Ledger will be running from the Edge to the SAP BTP and DataCenters and then SAP Applications like SAP Asset Performance Management and SAP S/4HANA will be able use the Data in Business Processes and Insights.
And your Technical Reference Architecture will look something like this:
And that's how you do it.
Wrapping up, conclusions:
. Trustable Enterprise IoT depends on Data being stored in the Enterprise Blockchain at the Edge and in the SAP BTP
Enterprise Blockchain is:
. The Digital Transformation of Information Security to Cyber Security
. The Next Generation Data Integrity, Originality, Confidentiality Protection
. Re-imagining Information Security
. Natively, out of the box, due to its special characteristics the strongest, hardest, most resilient Enterprise Database product
Enterprise Blockchain is both:
. a Secure Store
. a Secure Communication Channel
The configurable Enterprise Blockchain Wallet enables you to store Big Data 'Off-Chain' and the hashes of the IoT Data are stored safely and securely on the Enterprise Blockchain Database.
The good news is, as we discussed in the previous blog, this is no longer hype, we can do all of this today, and now, within the SAP Partner Edge Open EcoSystem there are enabling technology Blockchain Products designed and built by SAP Experts specifically for the needs of SAP Customers to make doing Blockchain and SAP easy, and so you can do SAP and Blockchain, today it's real and there's nothing stopping you.
So what are we waiting for ? Oh yeah, more use cases, ok, that will be the next blog.
What do you think, are the words IoT, Blockchain, Web3, Distributed Ledger Technology, starting to appear in your Company's visions and technology visions ? What use cases are you looking at ? Let's chat about it in the comments.
For now, over and out.
Andy Silvey.
Independent SAP Technical Architect and CEO of atkrypto.io
Author Bio:
Andy Silvey is a 25 years SAP Technology veteran [15 years SAP Basis and 10 years SAP Tech Arch including Tech, Integration, Security, Data from 3.1H to S/4HANA PCE on RISE and the BTP and everything in between, and former SCN Moderator and Mentor alumni].
Andy is also co-Founder of atkrypto inc, an startup whose ambition is to make Blockchain easy for Enterprise.
atkrypto.io's flagship product is the atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP, and atkrypto.io is a SAP Partner Edge Open EcoSystem Partner.
The atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP has been designed by SAP Independent Experts for the needs of SAP Customers and to be deployed on the SAP BTP Kyma Runtime Service and leverage native integration to SAP Products.
atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP has a number of unique qualities, including being the only Blockchain software in the world which has a DataCenter version and a light mobile version which can run on Edge/IoT/Mobile devices and enables data to be written to the Blockchain at the Edge where that same Blockchain is running on a Server in the DataCenter, protecting the integrity and originality of data from the Edge to Insights. Taking Blockchain to the Data at the Edge instead of taking the Data to the Blockchain.
All of this makes atkrypto,io the DePIN Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Network solution for Enterprise.
atkrypto is one of the Next20 startups being featured at TM Forum's DTW Ignite in Copenhagen in June
If you will be at DTW24 come and talk to us about Cyber Security of SAP Data with Enterprise Blockchain.
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