Red Hat has announced the launch of its Container Runtime Interface 1.0 (CRI-O). This will allow containers to be run directly from Kubernetes without any unnecessary coding or tooling. Some of their goals for the project were to have stability for Kubernetes, the ability to share technologies with other projects, to be lighter weight than other container runtimes, and have better performance for Kubernetes than other container runtimes.

The first version of CRI-O v1.0 is based on the Kubernetes 1.7 release, but all future versions of CRI-O will match the version number of Kubernetes that they support.

IBM has announced a new blockchain solution to improve global payment processing time
IBM has announced a new blockchain banking solution. The solution should reduce the time it takes for banks to clear and settle payment transactions on a single network, as well as reduce the cost to complete global payments for businesses and consumers. According to IBM, the blockchain solution is already processing transactions for 12 currency corridors across the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  

The solution was built in collaboration with Stellar.org and KlickEx Group. Stellar is an open-source blockchain network used for the issuance and exchange of digital assets. KlickEx Group is a financial institution serving the Pacific region that services banks, retail clients and consumers using this blockchain network.

“With the guidance of some of the world’s leading financial institutions, IBM is working to explore new ways to make payment networks more efficient and transparent so that banking can happen in real-time, even in the most remote parts of the world,” said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president of IBM Industry Platforms. “Making distributed ledger technologies more interoperable is the latest example of IBM’s leadership driving the rapid advancement of blockchain.”  

Samsung’s Vice Chairman Oh-Hyun Kwon to resign
Samsung has announced that Vice Chairman Oh-Hyun Kwon will be resigning as the company’s head of the Device Solutions Business and won’t be seeking re-election as a member of the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board once his term ends in March 2018. Kwon has been with the company for 32 years, starting as a researcher of the company’s Semiconductor Research Institute. In addition, he is resigning as CEO of Samsung Display.

“It is something I had been thinking long and hard about for quite some time. It has not been an easy decision, but I feel I can no longer put it off,” Kwon said. “As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry.”