Dive Brief:
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Microsoft plans to introduce Enterprise Smart Contracts, a tool designed to make it easier for enterprises to build on its Blockchain-as-a-Service offering, as reported by ZD Net.
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Microsoft launched Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service in November 2015, but had to solve for creating applications "new environments,” wrote Marley Gray, Principal Program Manager, Azure Blockchain Engineering, in a Microsoft blog.
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The new enterprise contracts platform includes Azure, Azure Key Vault and Azure Active Directory.
Dive Insight:
Blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, is best known in the financial industry. But experts say the technology has potential for a wide range of uses in the enterprise. Still, it can be challenging for companies to figure out what to do with it and how to use it.
As Blockchain grows in acceptance, companies including IBM and Microsoft are working to get in on the ground floor. In April, IBM said it would invest in startups building blockchain-based services. Not long after, the company announced it also planned to launch Blockchain-as-a-Service.
A survey released by Deloitte in December found executives in technology, consumer products and manufacturing, and media and telecommunications industries plan to spend the most on blockchain technology this year.
