With the closure of Microsoft Azure, ConsenSys Quorum is open to new users

Just as the cryptocurrency industry is constantly changing and developing, the enterprise blockchain industry has also experienced considerable development recently. Recently, enterprise blockchain solutions are shifting from private, closed networks to public, open systems.This is largely due to Progress from the Ethereum network, To ensure better privacy, scalability, throughput, etc. for enterprise customers.

A new industry analysis report Demo This change points out that by 2026, the global blockchain technology market is expected to reach 72 billion U.S. dollars, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 51.8% during the forecast period. Interestingly, the report’s survey results show that during 2020, the public enterprise blockchain segment has become the leading model with the highest global market share.

As more and more enterprise blockchain solutions turn to public networks, Microsoft recently announced that its Azure blockchain service is Migrate users to alternative productsIt is worth noting that Microsoft’s Azure blockchain was originally a sandbox service created in 2015 in collaboration with ConsenSys on Ethereum. In 2019, the solution is offered as a fully managed blockchain as a service or BaaS.

Fast forward to 2021 and a recent blog post from Microsoft status Azure users must now “migrate ledger data from Azure blockchain services to alternative products.” The article further recommends that users migrate to Quorum Blockchain Service, or QBS.

In terms of context, QBS is a managed product of ConsenSys on Azure, supporting Quorum as a ledger technology. Quorum allows corporate customers to build blockchain solutions on the public Ethereum mainnet and private networks.

Emmanuel Marchal, head of global sales for the blockchain software company ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that given ConsenSys’ ownership of Quorum and the company’s long-term relationship with Microsoft, it makes sense for Microsoft to join ConsenSys:

“ConsenSys is providing migration from Azure blockchain services to Quorum blockchain services provided on Azure. This has always been part of our strategic relationship to ensure that Azure customers have Quorum’s enterprise-class managed blockchain services.”

Marchal further pointed out that since then ConsenSys acquires ownership of Quorum from JPMorgan Chase Last year, the company has been focusing on bringing new technologies to the market. This includes providing custodial services for Quorum. Based on the strong relationship between ConsenSys and Microsoft, Marchal explained that “it makes sense to transition Azure blockchain service users to QBS as the recommended migration strategy.”

Therefore, Marchal shared that ConsenSys has been actively working with dozens of Azure blockchain users to help them plan their migration to QBS. “The goal is the cooperation between Microsoft and ConsenSys to ensure a seamless migration from one service to another,” he said. Microsoft announced that its Azure blockchain service will “retire” on September 10th, before users must migrate to QBS or alternative services.

Is this good news for Microsoft?

Although it seems unfortunate that Microsoft’s Azure blockchain service is about to end, Marchal believes that this shift is an improvement. “ConsenSys maintains the open source Quorum technology. Azure blockchain service users who use this proprietary technology are in a good condition in the development of ConsenSys, and we are confident in this migration.”

In addition, from the perspective of the users of Microsoft Azure blockchain services- include Major corporate customers such as JPMorgan Chase, General Electric Aviation, Singapore Airlines, Starbucks, and Xbox-migrating to QBS may not have much impact. For example, Paul Brody, head of global blockchain at EY, told Cointelegraph, Four major companies’ cooperation plans with Microsoft and Xbox constant:

“Microsoft’s plan to migrate software contracts from the Xbox ecosystem to smart contracts based on Ethereum continues to gain momentum and has now integrated more than 300 companies.”

Azure SQL adds an immutable ledger

Coincidentally, Azure SQL, a hosted cloud database provided as part of Microsoft Azure, is integrating ledger functions.This development is recent Announce In Microsoft’s Build 2021 developer activity.

According to a Microsoft blog post Publish On May 25th, “Azure SQL Database Ledger” will add tamper-proof features to Azure SQL Database. The post further stated that the Azure SQL database ledger will “provide a simpler solution for centralized systems that need to strengthen trust between parties.”

It should also be noted that the ledger function of Azure SQL Database does not require any data migration or changes to user applications. “You can enable ledger functions on tables in the database and interact with them in the same way as any other table,” the post noted.

Although it’s worth noting, Azure SQL Database sounds very similar to Oracle’s Encrypted Secure Data Products, Which was announced in March. Juan Loaiza, executive vice president of Oracle’s mission-critical database technology, previously told Cointelegraph that Oracle has created a cryptographically secure data management product that utilizes the “blockchain list” in the Oracle database. Loaiza also pointed out that this feature is different from Oracle’s blockchain platform, which is built on Hyperledger Fabric, and Often used in supply chain management.

With this in mind, another possible enterprise blockchain trend may be to incorporate immutable ledgers into enterprise-level databases, as Oracle and Microsoft have already demonstrated.

Will more companies turn to the public system?

Regarding Microsoft’s migration to a solution supported by enterprise Ethereum, Brody said that Ernst & Young sees an overall trend. The company is shifting its focus to public blockchains and shutting down custodial businesses centered on private blockchains. “With nearly 15,000 nodes of Bitcoin and Ethereum running there, everyone has made larger public businesses a priority,” he said.

Although this may be the current trend, it is worth noting that some enterprise solutions continue to rely on private networks. Kareem Yusuf, general manager of IBM AI Apps and Blockchain, told Cointelegraph that companies are continuing to invest in blockchain networks, and many choose permissioned blockchains to solve complex industry challenges:

“In enterprises, collaboration and trusted data sharing are essential. For many people, permissioned networks provide the assurance they need. In the future, we expect we will see more intersections between public and private networks. .”