Microsoft Launches Ethereum Blockchain as a Service on Azure

The platform includes two primary components designed to streamline development. Ether.Camp functions as an integrated development environment for building applications, while BlockApps Strato delivers a flexible blockchain environment—deployable as either private or semi-private infrastructure, with the option to bridge to the public Ethereum network. Financial sector operators represent the core target market, with the tools enabling institutions to "experiment, understand, and rapidly iterate at minimal expense using a fully prepared development, testing and production stack," according to Marley Gray, who oversees technology strategy for Microsoft's financial services division in the United States.

Questioned about the choice of Ethereum over Bitcoin, Gray outlined the rationale in his remarks. "The entire industry, especially within financial services, sees blockchain as transformative," he noted. "Bitcoin excels as a cryptocurrency, certainly, but Ethereum delivers the adaptability and customization our enterprise clients require. Since the Frontier launch earlier this year, Ethereum has matured into a genuine platform backed by an active ecosystem of developers, companies and contributors."

Gray elaborated further during conversations at DEVCON1, the five-day Ethereum development summit occurring in London and underwritten by Microsoft. He characterized the new offering as enabling "swift failure at lower cost," permitting institutions to construct isolated blockchains featuring automated smart contracts. "Our customer discussions repeatedly surfaced the same challenge: entering the blockchain space felt prohibitively difficult and prohibitively expensive," he explained.

Joseph Lubin, an Ethereum Foundation co-founder, launched ConsenSys to architect decentralized systems and construct developer-facing infrastructure for the blockchain sector. Andrew Keys, leading ConsenSys's enterprise expansion efforts, emphasized the partnership's significance: "This collaboration with Microsoft reinforces ConsenSys's capacity to deliver enterprise-grade blockchain platforms at scale. Azure has demonstrated itself as a robust, efficient platform for hosting our solutions, and we anticipate deepening our engagement with Microsoft."