Over the past year, we have worked closely with customers and partners to develop an open blockchain ecosystem on Microsoft Azure for blockchain application development. Our goal has been to empower you to build blockchain solutions easily, with the ledger and development tools of your choice.
Initially, we targeted dev/test topologies, partnering with organizations such as R3, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, Chain, and BlockApps, to deliver development and demo machines for a variety of protocols. We received ample positive feedback and expanded support to more complex topologies as customers began work on more advanced scenarios. Several months ago, we introduced the first set of consortium network solution templates with Ethereum.
As we approach Consensus 2017, it is with great pleasure that we announce support for complex blockchain network deployments for many more blockchain and distributed ledger protocols on Azure, including HyperLedger Fabric, R3 Corda, Quorum, Chain Core, and BlockApps, to further our goal and meet customers where they are.
We broadly categorize our deployments into three topologies:
- Dev/Test: A topology to enable a developer to get started with the protocol and application development. This is usually a single node (virtual machine) in a single Azure subscription. We already support such deployments for a variety of protocols, including BlockApps, Corda, Quorum, Syscoin, Chain, and Parity (Ethereum) to name a few.
- Single Member: Topologies that help test and simulate production for multiple divisions within a single organization (single member). This is usually comprised of a multi-node network possibly across multiple regions.
- Multi-Member: Topologies that help test and simulate production for multiple organizations (multi-member). This is usually comprised of a multi-node network possibly across multiple regions, Azure subscriptions, and/or AAD tenants.
Over the next week, you will see support for many more single member topologies including:
HyperLedger Fabric: This solution deploys a multi-node HyperLedger Fabric network. The network consists of a node that runs the membership service, a node that runs the ordering service, and multiple Fabric peer nodes. For additional information, you can visit Hyperledger Fabric documentation.
R3 Corda: This solution deploys a multi-node Corda network. The network consists of a single node running the network map, a node running the notary service, and multiple member nodes. For additional information, you can visit Corda documentation.
Quorum: This solution deploys a multi-node Quorum network. The network consists of a block maker node, and multiple voters and observers. For additional information, you can visit Quorum documentation.
Chain: This solution deploys a multi-node and multi-region Chain Core network. The network consists of a single block generator node, and multiple signers and participants. For additional information, you can visit Chain Core documentation.
BlockApps: This solution deploys a multi-node BlockApps Strato network. The network consists of a single block maker node, and multiple validators and participants. For additional information, you can visit BlockApps Strato documentation.
As with our many other blockchain releases, we focus on reducing the time you spend building out and configuring the infrastructure for blockchain networks to allow you to focus on building out your blockchain pilots.
Please reach out to us and our partners with any questions, feedback, or additional requests once you have an opportunity to try out these new solutions. We are excited to be a part of your blockchain journey with our blockchain partner community.
