In the upcoming years, it can be said that the technology of Blockchain will be playing a vital role. It is growing at a rapid rate and this is because the organizations have understood the importance of technology.
There are many reasons because the implementation of blockchain is not easy. The development services of blockchain support critical hardware necessities and systems in order to attain a good amount of decrease in attack vulnerability. Blockchain development services are increasing at a rapid rate in order to satisfy the needs of the client.
BaaS suppliers like Microsoft, IBM, Azure, and other top rated companies have made great research in order to make the execution of blockchain easy for the industries whose main capability remains in the field than that of IT. It helps in assisting the enterprise to focus on the main areas instead of the development space.
There are many business structures who are having their main focus to adapt to the technology of blockchain but the cost of operational overhead related to development, operation, configuration, infrastructure maintenance acts as a barrier. In order to rent infrastructure in BaaS helps in allowing the business to acquire the skillset that is essential for operating the infrastructure of blockchain. The investment that is required for entering the segment of technology is also reduced since scaling up of service agreement is possible or it can even be terminated within a short notice period. This blockchain technology plays a vital role in offering the business to remain at the technology edge without any kind of unnecessary risks.
What is BaaS or Blockchain as a Service?
IaaS plays an important role in offering the enterprise the ability for renting the infrastructure technology that is based on a farm of a remote server. The companies do not own the equipment but are having substantial control over the supplier’s resources and knowledge along with infrastructure.
There are many IaaS arrangements which are also including the provision of support and management of extensive infrastructure. In simpler words, it can be said that BaaS is offering the companies with blockchain infrastructure in the cloud. Moreover, it can be said that the hardware, as well as the software that are essential for running the applications of blockchain, are provisioned fully, managed extensively, and service providers host them. There are many cloud service providers who are also playing a role in offering the BaaS.
How do BaaS works?
BaaS basically plays a role in setting up as well as managing the technology of blockchain and also its infrastructure for a client. Some amount is paid to the BaaS provider by the client for setting up as well as handling the connected nodes of blockchain on their behalf. The backend as well as the business is handled by the BaaS provider. It is the main work of the BaaS operator to keep the infrastructure of blockchain running. There are many activities that are taken care of by the BaaS provider like bandwidth management, allocation of resources, and requirements of hosting. Clients are able to focus on important areas because of the BaaS model. Moreover, the client can also focus on the functionality of the blockchain instead of worrying about issues related to performance and infrastructure.
Why does BaaS work for enterprises?
The enterprises are suffering from a lot of difficulty in getting the proper resources although this technology of blockchain is not a new technology. Renting the infrastructure of blockchain similar to that of BaaS helps in allowing the technology managers in acquiring the skills instantly that are essential for operating the infrastructure of blockchain.
Investment is also lowered. A BaaS agreement is having the ability to get scaled or terminated completely within a short period of notice. Therefore the CTO will be able to test the blockchain benefits without spending a great amount for the upfront or committing to hires that are permanent. A way forward is provided to the enterprises that wish for staying at the technology’s bleeding edge without getting involved in any kind of risks.
Read the blog- Introduction To Azure Blockchain Services Which Save A Lot of Time And Cost
BaaS for start-ups
The opportunities for business BaaS especially with small businesses are known to be ideal for organizations that play a major role in outsourcing the technological aspects. It plays a vital role to make the firm understand this blockchain technology instead of developing a proprietary blockchain. A number of industries are there that are using the integration of solutions of baaS like supply chain management, identity management, and also payments. This technology of blockchain can be considered to be growing at a rapid rate for the challenges of SMEs like lack of transparency, elimination of middle man, and many more.
Use cases of BaaS for business
- Document tracking- An immutable and distributed system of tracking is offered by the technology of blockchain. The documents are generally kept in blockchain and then all the participants will be getting equal information access moreover it is important to keep in mind that the technology of blockchain is immutable and so it can be ensured easily about the safety of documents.
- Data Storage- The data is basically stored in the blockchain that is decentralized and so the less risk of the amount of data is also reduced by means of the manifold. There are many regulated industries like real estate, healthcare, etc that gets benefit from this immutable and secured facility of storing data on the blockchain. The highly regulated industries will hence benefit from this kind of service.
- Contract execution- contract execution is basically provided by the platform under the contract service of blockchain and this promises high levels of transparency. It is having a distributed nature which implies informing all parties equally.
The main benefit of blockchain basically lies in the unraveling of the use cases that will emerge. It is offering the enterprise an opportunity for working on those cases and that also without any commitments of large terms. They will just have to establish a partnership with a good blockchain development company and then fully embrace the capabilities of blockchain technology.
Regional adoption of blockchain
The impact of BaaS is basically positive in nature and is having a huge demand because of the service. The market for BaaS worldwide is very big in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The presence of SMEs can be considered to be one of the prime reasons. Another reason is that the large businesses are operating in locations like the US along with a wish to combine the public utility services with the technology.
Now according to various data and researches, it has also been seen that Europe is holding a great market with respect to BaaS. One of the main drivers of Baas and blockchain adoption has been the support of governments from various countries.
The third biggest market for BaaS integration is APAC. APAC stands for the Asia Pacific region. The technology is seemed to grow in the region of South Korea, China, and Japan in the case of traditional businesses. There are many tech companies that are emerging at a huge rate in order to provide the adoption of BaaS or blockchain as a service. There are basically playing the roles of BaaS providers.
Popular BaaS providers
There are many BaaS providers but mention must be made of some important BaaS providers which are given below-
Microsoft
Mobile application development services are growing at a rapid rate but still, Microsoft can e considered to be one of the best vendors who are providing BaaS. They started it when they founded Azure blockchain services in the year 2015. They basically teamed up with Consensys for developing Microsoft Azure. Microsoft Azure is basically based on the technology of Etherium blockchain. The service aims in enabling the enterprise clients as well as the developers to experiment with the technology of blockchain with an environment of blockchain that is one-click cloud-based.
The service of BaaS of the Microsoft Azure helps in allowing the user for building private as well as public and consortium environments of blockchain with frameworks that are industry-grade. They also bring their apps of blockchain to market. Now by integrating Cortana, an AI-based virtual assistance system, Azure helps their users in understanding as well as implementing the distributed technology of ledger.
Features of Microsoft Azure
- Supports multiple frameworks of blockchains like Corda, Etherium, Quorum, and Hyperledger Fabric.
- Complete logging as well as monitoring.
- Consortium management is in-built which helps in managing the members of the network.
- Easy process of deployment with Azure Portal, Azure CLI along with Azure blockchain extension.
Amazon
Organizations are seeking the help of blockchain technology and so Amazon is also not lagging behind and it is also having its BaaS offering which is also known as Amazon-managed blockchain. This Amazon managed blockchain is known to be a fully managed service that helps their users in setting up as well as handling a scalable network of blockchain with some clicks.
Two popular frameworks of blockchain development are normally supported by the Amazon managed blockchain and they are Hyperledger Fabric and Etherium. This makes it very easy for the client in managing both public as well as permission networks of blockchain with the help of a single managed service. A variety of types of instances are provided like a different combination of CPU and memory, the BaaS of Amazon also provides the flexibility for selecting the proper resources that are required for your workloads.
Features of Amazon managed blockchain
- It is managed fully.
- Supports both Etherium and Hyperledger Fabric.
- Uses the technology of Amazon QLDB for managing the ordering services of augmented ones.
- AWS key management service is also there which helps in securing the CA of Hyperledger Fabric. CA stands for Certificate Authority.
R3
Chainstack is a blockchain platform that made a release of the R3 Corda service which is the same as other BaaS services. It helps in giving the enterprises the proper access to the deployment with one-click of the nodes of cloud-based Corda. There are many wallet app development companies who seek the help of this service in order to gain profit and stand-alone among their competitors in the market.
The managed R3 Corda platform helps in reducing the time of deployment of the nodes of blockchain and also allows R3 partners, enterprises, and Governments in hosting the network of Corda in just three clicks. This is built on Corda 4.1 which is the latest release, developers are able to develop their private network for installing CorDapps and also testing environments on the nodes of the private network. It basically leads to reduced resources and efforts play a role in offering scalability over a short period of time. Developers will now not have to focus on network maintenance.
Features of service of R3 Corda
- Quick nodes set up with the help of Docker and an easy deployment process for cloud-based ones.
- The blockchain application firewall is built-in for providing an additional amount of security
- R3 is having interoperability features that normally allow the developers in operating by using multiple applications at a single time.
SAP Cloud Platform
The SAP cloud platform is also known as Leonardo that normally resides in the cloud service of SAP. It does not need any kind of on-premise hardware as well as software. It eliminates the requirement for a huge amount of capital and the Leonardo of SAP helps in allowing the use of open standards for developing blockchain networks that are consortium as well as private.
It basically performs as a cloud service platform, a service of machine learning, and also plays an important role in providing support to IoT within a single ecosystem.
Features of Leonardo by SAP
- The process of cloud deployment is possible.
- Monitoring the data of blockchain in real-time is possible.
- The cloud platform of SAP for blockchain helps in allowing to prototype, test, and build smart contracts as well as blockchain.
Factors for choosing the right platform for BaaS
It is hard to choose iPhone app development services and so is the case of BaaS platforms. There are various reasons but the following reasons that will help you in choosing your right BaaS platform are given below-
- Smart contract integrations- A smart contract integration is very essential in order to integrate the logic of business into the solution of blockchain. A smart contract is not only about the rules like typical contracts but is also about enforcing penalties in case if any rule is broken by any party. The BaaS platform is immutable and it plays an important role in making the process of testing as well as the deployment of smart contracts tough for the developers. It is very important to consider the BaaS Company will be providing their client with smart contract integration along with deployment.
Read the blog- How Can AI & Blockchain Be Employed To Enhance Mobile UX
- Consensus mechanism that is identity-based- Proof of stake or proof of work is considered to be the typical consensus mechanism and is very common in today’s world. However, it must be mentioned that more scalability is never offered by both proof of work as well as proof of stake that is needed by the enterprise-grade solution. Therefore it is very important to make a selection of the BaaS service providers who are working on a consensus mechanism that is free from the computation. Consensus models that are identity-centric can play a role in scaling up the network and also allow the enterprise for integrating the technology in a quick manner. You can also select the BaaS platform that is having an algorithm of identity-based consensus that will be enabling the enterprise in operating with identities that are authorized.
- IAM- IAM stands for Identity access management. It is basically a permission network that will be allowing the user to access specific layers and information. Integrating a platform of identity management will make the network of blockchain secured in a tight manner and you can also grant permission to individuals. IAM is known to be a framework that helps in managing the digital identities of enterprises. Single sign-in methods or multiple authentication ways can be used for giving the users access to information. IAM integration helps in ensuring that you share only the necessary information. Always try to select that BaaS platform that will be offering the framework integration of IAM.
- Different frameworks and runtime- Sometimes it can be that you want to shift to another platform of blockchain while you are developing an app of blockchain in BaaS infrastructure. This versatility is not offered by many BaaS providers. Maximum BaaS providers will be supporting one kind of deployment of enterprise blockchain. Always make sure that you are choosing a BaaS provider that is supporting a diverse range of frameworks as well as runtime. This will help you in bringing flexibility to the requirements of your enterprise.
Conclusion
There are many iOS application development companies who are also having BaaS features in order to gain more profit and to provide a service to their client that will be beneficial for them. This will help them in maintaining their reputation.