Salesforce.com Inc. today debuted a new development toolkit that will enable enterprises to build blockchain applications on its cloud platform.

A blockchain is a type of database that can store records in a highly secure manner. All the users of a blockchain receive their own separate, encrypted copies of the information in the system, which makes to easy to spot if one user has had records tampered with.

The technology has attracted a great deal of interest in the enterprise that Salesforce now hopes to tap with its new toolkit. Salesforce Blockchain, as the offering is called, is based on an open-source blockchain system called Hyperledger Sawtooth.

The software is maintained by the Linux Foundation and is specifically built for use in enterprise environments. Salesforce has customized Hyperledger Sawtooth to work with Lightning, a suite of development tools in its cloud platform that allows customers to build custom applications atop the native feature set.

The main benefit that this combination brings to the table is ease of use. Lightning, whose web components framework Salesforce also open-sourced today, is what’s known as a low-code framework, meaning developers can accomplish certain tasks through a graphical interface instead of manual programming, and the offering has a well-established user base. That means there’s a large number of developers who already well-versed in using Lightning to build applications.

“And this also means you don’t have to go out and recruit blockchain developers — any Salesforce admin or developer can use Salesforce Blockchain,” Adam Caplan, Salesforce’s senior vice president of emerging technology, wrote in a blog post.

The linchpin of Salesforce Blockchain is Blockchain Builder. It’s a virtual workbench that enables software teams to build custom applications on top of Salesforce’s Hyperledger Sawtooth implementation. They can then hook up those applications to their companies’ Salesforce environments through a second tool called Blockchain Connect.

Rounding out the bundle is Blockchain Engage, which makes it possible to provide access to external parties such as suppliers. Salesforce is touting the toolkit as a secure way for companies to share the data that they keep in its customer relationship management platform, marketing automation suite and other cloud products.

One early adopter of Salesforce Blockchain is Arizona State University. The school is building a system for securely sharing student information with other educational institutions. Another customer, healthcare technology firm Iqvia inc., is looking to use the toolkit to develop a more reliable means of managing clinical  data.

Salesforce is not the first major cloud player to take aim at blockchain development. Amazon Web Services Inc. recently launched its own service for building blockchain applications, while Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp. offer competing products.

Photo: Salesforce/Flickr