Deploying Your Hyperledger Fabric Network Solution on Azure.
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Firstly, BAAS — What is it?
You can skip these parts and go directly to “Steps to Set-up Fabric Environment on Azure” if you are already familiar with these topics and just want a quick tutorial.
So what is BAAS? Any guesses? You might have heard about PAAS which stands for Platform as a Service, SAAS which stands for Software as a Service and IAAS or Infrastructure as a Service. But what is BAAS? At this point, if you might be from a Web Development background, you might be thinking, “Is it Backend as a Service?”
You couldn’t be further from the answer if that’s what you are thinking. BAAS stands for Blockchain as a Service. The term might be new to you or might not. The thing is, BAAS has existed for quite a few years now. It started out when Projects like Hyperledger and Corda came into the limelight.
Cloud Providers & BAAS.
One of the basic things you need to know about BAAS is that just like PAAS and IAAS, BAAS is also a managed service. Basically in BAAS, you do not need to configure the Blockchain to the extent you would have to when setting it up manually. You also do not need to have the infrastructure.
This is where Cloud Providers come in. When the hype for BAAS started, major cloud providers like AWS and Oracle sensed the potential in it all. Naturally, they made the decision of investing in this new technology which could prove to be one of the most important ones in revolutionizing many industries. After all, blockchain is not all about cryptocurrency. That is a common misconception. Equating blockchain and cryptocurrency would be like saying that DeepFake and Deep Learning are same. No, cryptocurrency is a use case of blockchain in the same way as DeepFake is to Deep Learning.
Coming back to the topic at hand, Cloud Providers invested in blockchain and that popularized BAAS. Today, you can find BAAS offerings by almost all popular cloud platforms. From AWS to Oracle, from Google Cloud Platform to Azure.
