Splunk, a pioneer in data integration and analytics created a platform that leverages Hyperledger Fabric’s capabilities to enhance data transparency, efficiency, and security across various datasets in order to tackle the complexities of data visibility across distributed ledger technologies. The platform’s core ambition is to consolidate and streamline the complex data sources that have long posed challenges for large-scale organizations, particularly regarding ledger data and metadata.
This state-of-the-art platform builds trust by utilizing Splunk’s open-source code to integrate ledger data seamlessly with other data types, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of the data throughout its entire lifecycle. The platform is designed to foster observability, providing organizations with the tools to gain comprehensive insights into their Hyperledger Fabric infrastructure without the need for bespoke development.
Below is a diagram that shows of the Splunk platform works:
Image source: Splunk’s website
In essence, Splunk’s initiative with Hyperledger Fabric is set to redefine the landscape of data observability and actionability. By creating a unified data environment, Splunk empowers organizations to make informed decisions rapidly and securely, thereby enhancing the overall efficiency and security of their operations.
WHY DOES IT MATTER TO ANALYZE BLOCKCHAIN DATA?
Blockchain and distributed ledgers are a relatively new technology that allow to decentralize our current way of transacting. From decentralized finance applications enabling decentralized lending and borrowing, to companies using blockchain to reinvent supply chain or other industries, there a wide array of blockchain applications, all of which require proper platforms to analyze all this new data. As times goes on, more and more applications, assets and transactions will happen on blockchains, either public or private. The digital shift is undeniable and Splunk has understood it.
S&P Global Ratings division using Splunk
In 2019 it was entering a new region. S&P took this opportunity to explore modern technologies and new ways of doing business. It decided to build a content management solution from scratch with innovative technology and security.
“Our solution is essentially a blockchain based content management system,” explains Mark Wang, Global Head of Cloud Architecture at S&P Global Ratings. S&P securely stores and shares files with different stakeholders. These might be regulators, external entities, and internal users. But this content includes critical and sensitive information. So the solution needed to provide permanency for records, and it needed to protect the security of these crucial, powerful data assets
“As a credit rating agency, we’re heavily regulated. We want to be multi-cloud. We need to satisfy regional data localization requirements. And data security is highly critical,” Wang says. “We needed a secure solution that’s tamper proof and immutable.”
For over a decade, S&P had been using Splunk for its infrastructure monitoring. “Everything we deploy has an automation with Splunk,” says Wang. At a Splunk conference in 2019, S&P saw the Hyperledger Fabric-based applications Splunk was developing. “We saw enormous potential for some of our emerging use cases,” says Wang. “Since we already had the platform, it made perfect sense to leverage it with Hyperledger Fabric.”
It also helped that Hyperledger Fabric is a private permission blockchain and is enterprise ready.
S&P could now get user interactions and metadata—like who uploaded documents or modified documents and when. S&P developed applications to retrieve that metadata and present it to the user for document searches. This opened up possibilities for providing an audit trail.
“Say a regulator comes to us and needs a complete audit trail of how a document that impacted the market was generated,” explains Wang. “They need to know who modified it, who saw it, things like that. We can put together all those pieces and connect those dots with the data the logger is capturing from the chain network.”