Microsoft unveils Azure Blockchain as ServiceNew Delhi, Dec 9 (AZINS) Microsoft on Friday launched Azure Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) that provides a rapid, low-cost and low-risk platform for organisations to collaborate together by experimenting with new business processes, backed by a Cloud platform.

Blockchain is a data structure used to create a digital transaction ledger which, instead of resting with a single provider, is shared among a distributed network of computers.

"In India, the availability of Microsoft Azure BaaS from local, hyper-scale datacentres will help enable blockchain adoption in regulated sectors like banking and financial services, insurance and healthcare as well as governments," Peter Gartenberg, General Manager, Enterprise and Partner Group, Microsoft, said in a statement.

The Azure marketplace has eight blockchain partner solutions enabled via single-click deployment. These include blockchain infrastructure, identity services and self-contained development environments.

Microsoft has been integrating the Solidity language into development tools such as Visual Studio to enable rapid development of next generation decentralised applications on blockchain, the company said.