These may be early days still for blockchain, but technology giants are in line for some big windfalls once the utilization of distributed ledgers climbs new heights.
In fact, once just 2% of servers run on blockchain technology, the market will be worth $7 billion.
This, according to Bank of America research analyst Kash Rangan, who has identified nine companies as likely to significantly benefit from the technology. Leaders like Microsoft and Amazon top the list, but other giants like Oracle, IBM, Salesforce and VMware are also set for success.
Rangan did not put a timestamp on his predictions, but did say that while many blockchain use cases have been identified, full services have not yet been built and are not used in production.
But a company like Microsoft just cannot afford to be left behind int his space.
For this reason, Redmond has been using blockchain technology on its Azure cloud computing services for around three years now and has underpinned blockchain into many of its other platforms including Office 365 and SAP.
The overall plan, reportedly, is for Microsoft users to move their data from these platforms to the cloud and then onto blockchain. This, many see as the evolution of Big Data, though there is a whole array of uses cases for this vibrant technology.
To this end, Azure has added Microsoft Flow and Logic apps into the mix.
This enables developers to connect applications into the Azure Blockchain Workbench, allowing for the possibility of a single, authentic data set to be shared across counterparties.
An awful lot of work remains.
But technology leaders like Microsoft are not only investigating, but paving the way for the adoption of blockchain by beginning to integrate these tools into their technology stacks.
It’s a long road, but the wins will be worth it.
