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Poland, Published date 10 March, 2020

KIR, OChK and Hitachi Launch a Durable Medium Service in the Cloud

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KIR, OChK and Hitachi launch a durable medium service in the cloud

KIR, OChK and Hitachi launch a durable medium service in the cloud

KIR, Operator Chmury Krajowej (OChK) and Hitachi Europe Ltd. have begun cooperation in the Polish market. This will be the first time that a durable medium combining the best of blockchain, WORM storage and cloud computing technologies will be implemented in Europe, supporting the digital transformation of enterprises and ensuring compliance with regulations around both durable medium and MIFID2. A range of sectors are set to benefit from these services, including telecommunications, banking and insurance.

A durable medium is a solution that allows the user to store and share all electronic documents in a safe and convenient way, benefiting the enterprise-customer relationship. As part of the cooperation, KIR will provide a comprehensive solution in the form of a durable medium as a service, in which the WORM storage solution implemented in the cloud will be responsible for inalterability and retention of the stored information. This will significantly support business processes in the enterprise-customer relationship.

The customers of institutions using this durable medium will receive from KIR a 24-hour access point to key information through a dedicated portal, which will be accessible both during the relationship with the institution and after termination. Additionally, thanks to the use of blockchain technology in the durable medium, they will be able to track the history of the document, as well as its authenticity.

Building a durable medium as an integral service is another step forward in the development of strategic services of KIR. Robert Trętowski, Vice President of KIR, said of the announcement: “Thanks to the cooperation with our partners, OChK and Hitachi, a durable medium system combining the best features of blockchain technology, WORM storage, trust services and the cloud, will be implemented in Europe for the first time. In recent years, blockchain technology and WORM have been treated as alternative solutions, which was a mistake, as in reality they complement each other very well. Our strategic plan assumes the development of a cross-sectoral service to be used wherever information durability is crucial, e.g. in the e-receipt, e-banking, and e-insurance systems or in the storage and processing of medical information.”

KIR is a pioneer of blockchain technology in Poland, and their durable medium solution for handling public documents based on this technology has already been implemented by PKO Bank Polski and BNP Paribas Bank Polska. KIR is consistently expanding its portfolio of services, which supports business efficiency by streamlining and simplifying operational processes within the company and in contact with clients. Amongst other services, it provides a secure tool for the user to confirm their identity online, mojeID, and also trust services.

One of the largest instances of the WORM storage in Poland has been implemented in two OChK processing centers. OChK will provide KIR with a secure WORM data repository and a comprehensive container platform for the business application of a durable medium system. Using a broad spectrum of the WORM as an application storage, OChK plans to deliver also other services based on this platform in the near future. Michał Potoczek, CEO of OChK, said of the partnership: “Apart from the WORM-as-a-service solution for a durable medium in KIR, we are developing a number of solutions based on it, such as the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) for e-documents, a secure file sync and share platform and backup-as-a-service.”

The provider of the write-once-read-many (WORM) storage (Hitachi Content Platform) and the business application of a durable medium (HCportal) is Hitachi Europe Ltd., which has customised this solution according to KIR’s requirements. Hitachi's solution based on WORM storage has been used by the majority of financial institutions in Poland to address the regulatory standards for a durable medium set by the EU, including Bank Pekao S.A., Santander Bank Polska, Getin Bank and SGB-Bank. The institutions that chose Hitachi's solution implemented it in the so-called “on-premise” mode, which enables customers’ information to be held within the bank’s infrastructure rather than by a trusted third party.

Strategic cooperation with KIR and the OChK therefore enables Hitachi to meet the expectations of customers who want to implement a durable medium in the service model, whilst ensuring full compliance with regulations. This service model marks a new direction for Hitachi's business in Poland, in cooperation with local partners. Tadeusz Woszczyński, Country Manager of Hitachi Europe in Poland, Austria and Central and Eastern Europe, highlights that this strategic project also confirms Hitachi's entry into the Polish market of cloud computing related solutions and services and blockchain-based solutions. Hitachi is the second largest global contributor at Hyperledger Fabric, an umbrella project of open source blockchains and related tools, and has R&D centers in the USA and Japan working on blockchain technology development. Hitachi also acquired REAN Cloud, a global cloud computing system integrator and professional services provider in this area, to complement its offer with industry-leading expertise in cloud migration.

Cooperation between KIR, OChK and Hitachi will ultimately enable the development of this innovative system for customers on the Polish market. Banks, insurance companies, medical institutions and other companies implementing a digitalization strategy will receive a complete solution for a durable medium as a service, with unique functionality of the audit performance by the client. KIR may also offer a portal for customers (HCportal) to the banks using the Hitachi’s WORM storage, which will be integrated with blockchain, in the form of a service. OChK will offer a secure WORM-as-a-service storage and a number of other services, such as secure file sharing and transfer, without the need to use foreign services and Internet disks. Hitachi's portfolio will be expanded to include service models by offering services provided by OChK and KIR. Therefore, thanks to this cross-company collaboration, the customers on the Polish market will be able to choose the implementation method and form of sales that best fits their digitalization strategy and budget.

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Izabela Świderek-Kowalczyk

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