Azure Blockchain as a Service
Microsoft Azure has set it's sights on Blockchain technology. Watch out Steemit, the Azure cloud wants a cut!
Focus on the Contract, Not the Infrastructure
Many businesses are starting to wonder about the benefits of Blockchain technology but a simple Proof of Concept can cost a lot and take too much time. So Azure has wrapped up several services allowing developers to focus on the details of their smart contracts, rather than infrastructure.
The scaffolding that Azure provides to Blockchain developers is some first class Blockchain tech. Check this out...
Fully automated, production, staging, and development environments for deployments of a Blockchain Network, a responsive web app, an SQL Database that is pre-configured to collect on-chain data, all without writing any code.
Pay Only for What is Used
The best part is the cost, it is going to be much cheaper to setup a sizable infrastructure that only runs up a bill when it is being used. If things are only being tested, there is probably very little traffic, so you are only charged for using a tiny fraction of Azure. Once things need to scale up, more resources are always available.
Do you need more resources for mining or need to add nodes for testing hard forks? This is the Azure cloud, so more VMs are just a click away.
In addition, how about Machine Learning on all that Blockchain data, powerful BI queries, chat bots, cognitive services, numerous distributed ledger systems to choose from, asset pipelines, unit testing frameworks, multi-member topologies and more.
I could keep going on but you get the idea...
Azure exposes a huge set of services that can be used together in different ways for different needs.
MS is hoping that a good Proof of Concept Blockchain application can now cost a tiny fraction of what it cost to build, for example, the Steemit Beta that we are all using today.
Again, Steemit, make no mistake... You are making big waves here, and Azure wants a cut of this biz!