The rate at which the technology has been developing pushes the companies and businesses to speed up their business processes by leaving them with very little time to depend on the IT team to collect data and analyze it. Building on-premise applications only proved to be an additional load on the companies.
The emergence of blockchain technology has offered a wide array of solutions to develop day-to-day business activities such as record keeping, maintaining data privacy and offering security and trade processing. Of late, IT organizations across many business verticals have adopted the blockchain as a service (BAAS) model in their businesses to strategically extract the advantages of blockchain technology.
Blockchain as a service (BAAS) model has the same working principle of software as a service (SAAS). This model enables the enterprises to use cloud-based solutions to host and adopt blockchain applications like smart contracts, supply chain management and other blockchain-related functions. Similar to SAAS, the infrastructure of BAAS is also maintained by the cloud service provider.
Market forecast for blockchain as a service (BAAS)
According to a study, the BAAS market is expected to reach $94.28 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 86.50% from 2019 to 2026. It is expected that the e-commerce sector will contribute to most of the revenue generated.
BAAS has been adopted across many business sectors such as the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance), Energy and Utility, Healthcare, Media, Entertainment, etc… in many countries across various continents.
The benefits of blockchain as a service (BAAS)
Organizations have found that implementing blockchain as a service model could be very effective as it could provide specific solutions for specific business requirements. For instance, the distributed ledger technology (DLT) technology is used for recording every transaction that takes place between the users within the blockchain network. These details are stored in multiple places at the same time and there is no central authority to handle the data. This eradicates the chances for the data to be altered within the blockchain network.
These days, enterprise applications play a major role in making business processes easier. But building these applications from scratch is quite complex and they need larger storage spaces to be stored and maintained. When it comes to BAAS, organizations can develop tailored solutions or applications to meet the needs of certain business issues using cloud-based platforms. The applications are then stored and maintained by the service provider. This reduces the cost invested in gaining software licenses, building and maintaining servers and an IT team to provide support.
Adopting BAAS can also solve complex issues related to data transparency, efficiency and cost of implementation as it is very simple to implement and removes the entry-level barriers for startups and SMEs to adopt blockchain technology.
Complexities faced by BAAS providers
The number of companies and enterprises that adopt BAAS keeps increasing exponentially. This could be a massive advantage for service providers as they could gain more customers. But there are technical complexities and operational overhead involved in creating and operating a blockchain environment.
The cost of investment is very higher in setting up a blockchain environment and maintaining it. Blockchain, being very resource-consuming, inevitably consumes huge amounts of energy and bandwidth to function efficiently.
Major BAAS providers in the market
As the popularity of blockchain as a service (BAAS) keeps increasing, many companies have offered to provide these services for many product-based companies and other companies that require BAAS in their business. Some of which are mentioned below.
1) Symbiont
Symbiont offers BAAS services to fintech and financial institutions. Their services are used for organizing records and transparently store all payments on the ledger.
Rating: 4.8/5
Website: https://www.symbiont.io/
2) PayStand
PayStand offers blockchain services to ensure immutability for payments and document processing. The company also provides networks that can document certificates. The user is given complete access to view his data. The end-to-end financial processes are automated by the PayStand network.
Rating: 4.8/5
Website: https://www.paystand.com/
3) Amazon Web services (AWS)
Amazon web services offer BAAS to various industries across various disciplines. AWS provides a blockchain-based network that can be integrated with the business process to improve IT infrastructure, human resources, business processes and financial transactions.
Rating: 4.2/5
Website: https://aws.amazon.com/blockchain/
4) Altoros
Altoros offers blockchain services to automate workflow processes, strengthen identity security and manage records. The company has offered blockchain services to various types of businesses such as telecommunication, finance, energy, supply chain and manufacturing. These services are useful in detecting fraud and even identify defective products.
Rating: 4.7/5
Website: https://www.altoros.com/
5) IBM blockchain
IBM offers blockchain as services (BAAS) that can be deployed into a ledger. It also allows organizations to easily build and develop applications that can be joined with a blockchain network. IBM offers reliable services to the food, media, advertising and trade finance industries.
Rating: 4/5
Website: https://www.ibm.com/in-en/blockchain
6) Cryptowerk
Cryptowerk offers blockchain as a service to help businesses to create ledger-based tools that can be used to seal off important data. The Cryptowerk seal, a blockchain API that is used to verify the authenticity of data and digital assets.
Website: https://cryptowerk.com/
7) Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure’s BAAS offering enables users to create and deploy applications within the blockchain network. Azure provides three blockchain products namely, Azure Blockchain Service, Azure Blockchain workbench and Azure Blockchain Development Kit.
Rating: 4.7/5
Website: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/solutions/blockchain/
Blockchain as a service (BAAS) has the potential to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology across various business verticals. BAAS can effectively reduce the amount of money invested in research, planning, resource and development. All these functions are carried out by the service provider and ensures that the business runs smoothly while the companies can solely focus on developing their product or service.
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