launcht Azure Blockchain Workbench is the latest step in Microsoft’s journey to enable customers to adopt blockchain technologies and get started with Azure Blockchain. To provide context, Azure Blockchain is a collection of Azure services and capabilities designed to help enterprises create and deploy a new class of applications for sharing business processes and data with multiple, semi-trusted organizations. Currently customers can deploy these services into their Azure subscriptions and integrate them with blockchains available on the Azure Marketplace.
Now, with Azure Blockchain Workbench, the heavy lifting is done for them, so they can focus less on scaffolding and more on logic and smart contracts. Azure Blockchain Workbench orchestrates several Azure services around popular blockchain digital ledgers and into a reference architecture that can be used to build blockchain-based applications. It’s a free, easy-to-use tool with a simplified interface that enables users to create end-to-end decentralized applications leveraging all of Azure Blockchain’s capabilities. It comes equipped with sample cross-organizational workflows and smart contracts, as well as an out-of-the-box UI that customers can use to drastically reduce development costs and accelerate proofs of concept.
There’s a common set of challenges related to blockchain app development that are addressed by Azure Blockchain Workbench, which dramatically reduces the amount of time needed to build a blockchain solution. Azure Blockchain Workbench provides code assets and ARM template-driven deployment for all the scaffolding needed for blockchain POCs, including the blockchain network, a gateway API, a responsive Web application, Azure Active Directory integration, Azure Key Vault integration, a SQL DB configured for collecting on-chain data, and a set of supporting services for data hashing and signing. The tool also makes it possible to create a Web front end without writing any code.
