While companies continue to debate the significance of blockchain technology, one chief technology officer is predicting that the innovative encryption methodology will be mainstream in as little as a year in the enterprise environment. If such expectations are to be met, it’s absolutely necessary for companies to dig in and get their hands dirty.

“Based on what we’re seeing in the industry today, I believe that enterprise businesses will have to be integrating with blockchains in 12 to 24 months,” said Michael Morton (pictured), chief technology officer of Dell Boomi. “I don’t think you’re going to have a Fortune 100 company that’s not integrating with a blockchain for one reason or another.”

Morton spoke with Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV) and John Furrier (@furrier), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Dell Tech World event in Las Vegas. They discussed the evolution of blockchain and ways companies can get involved (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Blockchain is the latest technology of collaboration

Because Morton talks to companies all of the time about blockchain, he has seen firsthand the interest and disinterest from people — especially technologists. But they’re missing the point, according to Morton. Because the main idea with blockchain isn’t the technology; it’s about the collaboration within industries that can happen.

“Blockchain is creating relationships in business that have never been created before,” Morton said. “You see a construction consortium, an energy consortium, healthcare consortium, transportation consortium, supply chain consortium — you look at the people that belong to those — it is amazing the collaboration between these companies because of blockchain as a concept.”

Morton advises companies to get on board with blockchain by starting simple. Companies should join a consortium, join a workgroup, and learn what others are doing within the space. They can even seek out competitors and research what they are doing with blockchain technology. There’s a vast amount of data out there. No matter what, it’s essential to get one’s hands dirty and get in with this new technology to start understanding the strengths and weaknesses of platforms and frameworks like Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric, according to Morton.

“It’s transforming the industry. So my advice is: Either get on board, or you’re going to be left behind,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Dell Tech World 2019 event. (* Disclosure: Dell Technologies Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Dell nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE