Microsoft is shutting down its Azure Blockchain Service on September 10, six years after initial launch, and is not supporting any new deployments as of May 10
Six years after its initial launch, Microsoft's Azure Blockhain as a Service is going to be shut down this September.
The related coverage soon shifts the product narrative toward Azure Confidential Ledger, described as adding security and scalability to blockchain. That makes the cutoff consequential for customers that had standardized on the retiring service’s deployment model.
First-order effects
Azure Blockchain Service customers can no longer start new deployments and must prepare existing deployments for the September 10 shutdown.
Microsoft stops operating the managed blockchain service while redirecting its ledger offering toward Azure Confidential Ledger.
Second-order effects
Customers using Azure Blockchain Service must choose between migrating their applications to another platform or redesigning them around Microsoft’s newer confidential-ledger product.
Microsoft’s blockchain partners and enterprise buyers lose a single managed Azure entry point, making security and scalability the more prominent criteria for any continued Azure ledger adoption.
Third-order effects
The sequence points to a narrower cloud-blockchain market in which providers differentiate through specialized ledger capabilities rather than maintaining broad, fully managed blockchain-building services.
If Microsoft’s product shift is sustained, enterprise blockchain adoption on Azure will be shaped more by confidential-data requirements than by a general-purpose blockchain platform.
The trend: Cloud providers are moving blockchain offerings from broad managed platforms toward narrower services built around enterprise security and scalability.
“Blockchain-as-a-service” was always a confused idea. If the point was to build a distributed system with no single point of failure, Microsoft hosting it defeats the purpose. If the point was innovation theatre, that's fine; hype is over, service closes. https://www.zdnet.com/..…
@quinnypig
Corey Quinn on x
Now @awscloud Managed Blockchain looks even more ridiculous. https://twitter.com/...
@brianleroux
Brian LeRoux on x
Big yikes energy. Never even want to *hint* a service could get shutdown by your cloud vendor. Now every other specialized Azure service has to hand wave this event. Luckily for them it's Blockchain so the story is plausible. 😂 https://twitter.com/...
@matthewconover
@matthewconover on x
Between this and Elon Musk dropping support for Bitcoin Tesla purchases, it very much feels like a turning point. https://twitter.com/...
@francis69610984
@francis69610984 on x
“Microsoft's documentation suggests users start migrating to an alternative now. The recommended migration destination is ConsenSys Quorum Blockchain Service.” 🤔 https://www.zdnet.com/...
@jptoto
JP Toto on x
I'm not saying it would be easy but finding a way to block or disable block chain loads in the cloud without specific manual opt-ins at the account level would disincentivize an awful lot of break ins. https://twitter.com/...
@c_gandhi
Chirag Gandhi on x
Could it be that having true blockchain application at scale is not an enterprise problem but an ecosystem problem 🤔 https://www.zdnet.com/...
@ryannosaurusrex
Ryan Hayes on x
Not shocked they're shutting it down. It's basically its own blockchain instance. All the “blockchain? why not just use a database?” arguments are completely valid for private/centralized instances like this. https://www.zdnet.com/...
@stshank
Stephen Shankland on x
Welp, there goes one attempt to offer a supposedly revolutionary IT technology. https://t.co/H2HRtKgl8H
@marypcbuk
Mary Branscombe on x
Migrate before September 10, 2021 (I never saw the point of Microsoft encouraging blockchain usage, there are so few problems to which it is the answer) https://twitter.com/...