Rapid application development platform Appian Corp. is getting a distributed ledger blockchain adapter today from global Information Technology service provider Luxoft Holding Inc.

The two companies today announced that Luxoft’s blockchain network integration will be exclusively available through Appian’s Business Process Management tool. With this adapter, enterprise and business users will be able to connect their current infrastructure with a blockchain platform designed to facilitate secure digital sharing.

“The launch of this adapter is about helping businesses realize the huge potential of blockchain by making it easier to use,” said Vasiliy Suvorov, vice president of technology strategy at Luxoft. He added that many businesses are slow to adopt blockchain technology because of difficulty integrating the technology with in-house systems.

Using the Business Process Management tool, Appian customers can rapidly prototype and launch business applications with minimal expertise in software development, he said. It’s designed so development teams can rapidly produce web and mobile apps with embedded business logic in a secure and scalable way.

To do this, the BPM platform also provides a set of high-level capabilities that include easily integrating with third-party applications and plugins. The new Luxoft blockchain appliance is an example of this capability.

“Now, by integrating blockchain into a BPM, a business can leverage the benefits of a decentralized model whilst retaining its existing IT architecture,” said Suvorov. “This means business don’t have to rip out their old IT systems to use blockchain.”

Blockchain technology has been sought after by numerous industries because it creates a tamper-resistant, shared database of transactions. As a result, historical data contained in it can be trusted to be uncorrupted, thus making a blockchain useful for auditing and analysis. Data can also be secured from prying eyes using cryptographic keys so that only trusted parties can access it, while authorized third parties can still verify the data’s integrity.

This affords blockchain technology a lot of interest across many industries, including financial technology, energy, trade, advertising and healthcare. For example, IBM Corp. and A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, a shipping giant, partnered up to build a global shipping blockchain. Likewise, IBM and Walmart Stores Inc. joined forces to create a supply chain management food safety blockchain. ODH Inc. and Hashed Health also joined forces to develop a healthcare blockchain for patient care and billing.

To show off the capabilities of its blockchain adapter, Luxsoft has set sights on how this technology can be used to benefit the healthcare industry. A demonstration will take place during the Appian World 2018 conference in Miami, Florida this week.

“The disparate systems used by pharmacies, healthcare providers and insurers to manage medical information are extremely complex,” said Sam Mantle, managing director of digital enterprise at Luxoft. “They are not designed for the smooth exchange of data.”

With the Luxoft blockchain adapter for Appian, Mantle said, pharmaceutical and healthcare businesses would gain access to a platform which would enable payers, providers and patients the ability to exchange and verify data securely. The blockchain would also allow for secure, reliable health data that could be audited by government compliance organizations and provide real-time information to data aggregators such as medical insurers, healthcare providers and pharmacies.

Image: Luxoft