8 Hot Blockchain Vendors Solution Providers Should Check Out

Banking On Blockchain

While blockchain is still in its early days, some solution providers are already jumping at the chance to find enterprise-grade solutions for the technology. The good news for early adopters is that there is already a diversity of enterprise blockchain platforms available both from major vendors in the channel, like Microsoft, and newcomers, like BigchainDB.

Originally conceived as a distributed ledger for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, blockchain is now seen as a potentially transformative technology for the enterprise, in part because of its tamper-proof qualities and its ability to provide a single source of truth for multiple parties.

With Gartner projecting blockchain's business value-add to grow to $176 billion by 2015, the technology's applicability is expected to impact many industries, including banking, insurance, retail, health care and transportation.

What follows are eight hot blockchain vendors whose software you can start using today.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services lets partners run blockchain networks on its cloud service through AWS Blockchain Templates. Partners can choose between the Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric open-source blockchain frameworks. Solution providers can also develop projects with Kaleido Blockchain Platform, which is available in the AWS Marketplace.

BigchainDB

BigchainDB is a Berlin-based startup that provides database technology with "blockchain characteristics," including decen­tralization, immutability and native support of digital asset trans­fer. The company also has a hands-on consulting and production support arm.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

HPE’s Mission Critical Distributed Ledger Technology allows partners to run "workloads in environments that demand 100 percent fault tolerance at mission-critical levels." The company also provides advisory, professional and operational services for blockchain design and implementation needs.

IBM

IBM provides a complete blockchain platform for IBM Cloud, which the company says can slash activation time by two-thirds. The platform includes Hyperledger Composer, a set of open-source tools that helps developers make proof-of-concepts, and Hyperledger Fabric, an open-source framework that helps devel­opers build scalable blockchain networks.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain Workbench aims to help partners accelerate development and testing of blockchain projects on the company’s Azure cloud service. Microsoft also provides access to third-party applications on Azure Marketplace, including Ethe­reum and Hyperledger Fabric.

Oracle

Oracle offers Blockchain Cloud Service, which is part of the company’s Platform-as-a-Service offerings and allows for the rapid on-boarding and scalability of network participants, who are protected by Oracle Identity Cloud Service. The service in­tegrates with Oracle’s other offerings, including ERP Cloud and Supply Chain Management Cloud.

SAP

SAP’s Platform Blockchain Service is part of the company’s Leonardo portfolio. The service enables developers to build blockchain extensions for existing applications while also giv­ing them an easy way to experiment on blockchain networks. It integrates with SAP’s Internet of Things and machine-learning offerings.

Stratis

Stratis provides an end-to-end blockchain development platform that allows for the development, testing and deployment of na­tive C# applications on the Microsoft .Net framework. The com­pany uses its own cryptocurrency to power the blockchain, and it is part of the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.