## 2.1 Why Secure Service Container? 

Data breaches are being reported at an increased frequency by large and small organizations, which leads to lack of trust for the organization. Auditors and government regulators increasingly require that customer data is secured, especially sensitive customer data that might be used for fraud or identify theft. As result, security is a major requirement for applications today. 

More and more organizations use containerization of workloads to simplify deploy, test, and migration of application workloads from one platform to another, without requiring code updates. Such organizations are required to provide a higher level of security for mission-critical and highly sensitive data. 

When you build your container environment into LinuxONE servers, you can take advantage of the benefits from this hardware platform. Benefits of the platform include specialized processors, cryptographic cards, availability, flexibility, and scalability. These systems are not only prepared to handle blockchain applications, but also applications for cloud, mobile, big data, and analytics contexts. 

LinuxONE servers deliver the highest standards of security and reliability, with millisecond response times, hybrid cloud deployment, and performance at scale. The world’s top organizations rely on this platform to protect their data with impeccable security to run blockchain applications. 

Although you can deploy your blockchain network in any server, IBM Secure Service Containers (SSC) brings more security to blockchain applications. SSC is a special logical partition that does not allow access through outside interfaces, such as SSH. The only access to an application that is running in SSC mode is through remote APIs in the application. 

SSC is an appliance that provides the base infrastructure for an integration of operating system, middleware, and software components. It works anonymously and provides core services and infrastructure with a focus on security. The blockchain application that is deployed under this appliance is certified, encrypted, and very secure because it does not allow you to install malware. In fact, the SSC blockchain appliance adds a layer of security to your blockchain environment and protects your data against both internal and external threats. 

This technology also delivers the best firmware protection to ensure the integrity of a blockchain environment. Even privileged system administrators cannot access the blockchain data, software, and applications. The inherent features for data security, including SSC, clearly differentiate LinuxONE servers from other servers. 

SSC contains its own embedded operating system, security mechanisms, and other features to prevent unauthorized access. The result is a highly secure infrastructure to run blockchain workloads with these benefits: 

GLYPH<SM590000> Simplified, fast deployment and management of packaged solutions 

GLYPH<SM590000> Tamper protection during appliance installation and runtime 

GLYPH<SM590000> Confidentiality of data and code that runs in an appliance for data in transit and data at rest 

GLYPH<SM590000> Management through Remote APIs (RESTful) and web interfaces 

Figure 2-1 provides a high-level view of the Secure Service Container components. 

