Microsoft has signed a deal with Consensys (Consensus Systems, Inc.) to develop new Ethereum Blockchain-as-a-service products and new tools for its cloud-based service platform Azure.

The Ethereum based service will officially be launched at the Ethereum developer conference, DΞVCON1, in London on 10th November, and will include the flagship offerings of BlockAppsStrato, a toolkit for building Ethereum applications, and Ether.Camp, a Blockchain explorer.

If you’re not familiar with Ethereum, it differs from the traditional Bitcoin-based Blockchain by using a different token called the Ether which allows for greater flexibility of use within a given enterprise application.

The partnership will allow enterprise customers to deploy private and semi-private or consortium Blockchain networks, along with single click Ethereum node deployment by the Azure control panel; every Ethereum node will come complete with a full computational machine running within it.

“We can deploy a private Blockchain; the foundational elements that businesses need from the technology side,” John Lilic, from ConsenSys told the International Business Times. “Then as we build out a prototype, we can together go through that discovery process and teach them along the way, and in doing so they now have a Blockchain…they can now interact with it and build upon it and expand it in the future.”

With the implementation on Microsoft’s Azure, developers can create applications that run on semi-private or private networks that won’t cost them anything.

“At some point you can spin up a public node and in the integrated development environment you can click one button and deploy your debugged program to the public Ethereum Blockchain,” C0nsenSys founder Joseph Lubin told TechCrunch in a separate interview. “And that will cost you about 2 cents or 5 cents worth of Ether and then your application is deployed. People using your application may spend a penny or less than a penny to interact.”

Ethereum boost

The Microsoft Azure tie-up is not only a great deal for Consensys, it’s a big boost for Ethereum as well at a time the Blockchain derived protocol is starting to seriously take off.

Ethereum’s long awaited Blockchain technology that supports smart contracts, which are user-generated programs designed to execute a predetermined set of commands (agreed to by all parties) using a Turing-complete programming language, launched back in July to strong praise, including by SiliconANGLE’s Kyt Dodson.

Given the multiple use cases for the technology, including the ability to securely execute a variety of services including domain name registries, financial exchange, crowdfunding, intellectual property agreements, and so on, the provision of simple deployment on Microsoft Azure can only help the buzz around the tech continue to grow as well.

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