LeapRate Exclusive… Last week LeapRate reported that IPC, a provider of networking solutions, has entered a partnership with R3. The team formation has been made in order to support Corda blockchain networks on the IPC Connexus platform.
Since this partnership, Corda blockchain applications (a.k.a. CorDapps) have been accessible via IPC’s Connexus Cloud.
LeapRate has reached Rob Coole, Director, Product Management at IPC Systems, to find out more details about it.
LR: Hi, Rob. Can you tell us how it all started? How did your partnership with R3 come about?
Rob: IPC has been exploring blockchain opportunities and innovators to
Rob Coole, Director, Product Management at IPC Systems
determine which blockchain projects satisfy our customer requirements and IPC’s go-forward blockchain strategy. The first generation of blockchain platforms were not designed for business; they lacked key characteristics like privacy and finality. R3 and Corda’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) has already been applied in a variety of use cases in finance to great effect, as the ecosystem was designed and built in partnership with the largest financial institutions to the rigor imposed by regulators and stringent industry criteria. Corda brings dramatic efficiencies to counter costs while enabling new business models even within large financial-services corporations. In addition, R3 is a consortium with many capital market members which aligns nicely with our Connexus community.
LR: Describe in detail the IPC Connexus platform. What are its benefits?
Rob: Our Connexus Cloud platform is a high-performance financial-services cloud solution for data, voice, and enterprise communications and compliance. It helps firms trade faster, scale rapidly, and achieve greater agility, productivity and efficiency, all of which lead to a significant competitive advantage. Connexus Cloud integrates over 6,600 sell-side and buy-side firms, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, energy firms, trade lifecycle services, market data and clearing/settlement firms. Connexus Cloud is important to the financial markets given its performance characteristics and community model, which are also optimal for blockchain deployments.
LR: IPC is giving its ‘Connexus Cloud’ users access to new CorDapps for R3’s blockchain network. Are there additional aspects to the R3 partnership?
Rob: Our partnership demonstrates how IPC is supporting its capital markets customers and increasing adoption of blockchain applications through Connexus Cloud. In addition, Connexus Cloud serves as a unified delivery platform for R3 and IPC customers to deploy Corda applications in the cloud without the need to build a new global transport network or support access to multiple concurrent cloud platforms.
LR: Since it’s the end of the year, the inevitable question follows – what are IPC’s plans for 2019?
Rob: It has been an exciting year for IPC and we are looking forward to the tremendous opportunities that 2019 will bring. We will continue to accelerate the global deployment of Unigy 360, our cloud-based software-as-a-service platform. Among exchange communities, IPC is facilitating increasingly fast speed-to-market strategies, enabling customers to quickly connect to and test new geographic markets — across countries comprising over 80 percent of global GDP, including emerging and frontier markets like China, Russia, Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates. We will also continue looking for ways to incorporate into our service offerings emerging technologies, such as AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and robotic process automation.