AWS joins the blockchain bandwagon, targeting healthcare and finance
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has joined its rivals in releasing a blockchain service, half a year after its CEO cited a lack of “practical use cases” for the technology.
Basing its blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) on Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric networks, AWS wants to give developers the tools they need to develop their own blockchain apps.
AWS’s Blockchain Templates allows users to quickly launch either a public or private Ethereum network, or a private Hyperledger Fabric network, with the templates creating and configuring all the AWS resources needed, based on the cloud giant’s pay-as-you-go pricing structure.
The platform has been adopted by a number of companies in sectors such as healthcare and finance, including mobile operator T-Mobile and Guidewire, an insurance platform provider.
T-Mobile is building an identity and authentication platform with Sawtooth, a technology from the Intel Hyperledger project, while Guidewire is using blockchain to auto-approve insurance claims and trigger payments.
AWS’s push into the blockchain market sees it follow in the footsteps of rivals including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, which have all deployed versions of this technology.
Oracle, for example, launched its Blockchain Cloud Service at its OpenWorld conference in October last year to boost the competitiveness of its cloud services against IBM and Microsoft’s packages.
However, AWS’s decision to follow suit marks a significant shift in strategy, given that its CEO, Andy Jassy, dismissed the potential of blockchain at AWS’s re:Invent 2017 conference in November.
