Microsoft is getting in on the blockchain app development game. It announced that its fully-managed Azure blockchain service will go live. In a press release from May 2, 2019, the company reported that the new blockchain as a service, or BaaS, will be a platform that will allow users to build their own blockchain apps. Users will be able to do this on a network that has already been configured.

Frank Shaw, who is the head of Microsoft's Office of Corporate Communications, stated that the service is designed to simplify the formation, management and rule setting process of consortium blockchain networks. He explained that the Azure Blockchain Service will be able to establish a new consortium network with just a few clicks. The user can also perform basic operations such as adding new members to their network or removing members from it.

Quorum, which is an open-source blockchain platform funded and partially managed by JP Morgan Chase, is the first platform that is able to be managed with the Azure Blockchain Service. The Azure Chief Technology Officer, Mark Russinovich, explained the reasons for why this is the first one. He stated that because Quorum is built on the popular Ethereum protocol, it is a natural choice. Ethereum has the world's largest blockchain development community. This means that it has the potential to add a lot of great new features and functions in the future.

In May 2018, Microsoft Azure released its app creation service called Azure Blockchain Workbench. This blockchain app creation tool is a platform that allows users to automate a lot of the aspects of work related to blockchain development. The app allows the users to streamline their app development processes by providing them with an infrastructure that is easy to use and that is stable.

In October 2018, Microsoft Azure partnered with Nasdaq. The Nasdaq chose to integrate with Azure's blockchain technology for its financial framework. The company did this because it could speed up their transactions. In the world of stock trading, speed is everything.

On April 30 2019, Amazon Web Services released Amazon Managed Blockchain.