Amazon’s Managed Blockchain now open to everyone

Amazon announced through Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud computing platform subsidiary, that Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) is now available for general use.

According to the announcement, the platform will allow customers to set up a blockchain network within their organizations. Through this platform, customers will be able to use the Ethereum and Hyperledger open source frameworks.

Rahul Pathak, the General Manager, Amazon Managed Blockchain at AWS said:

“Customers want to use blockchain frameworks like Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric to create blockchain networks so they can conduct business quickly, with a permanent record of transactions, but without the need for a centralized authority. However, they find these frameworks difficult to install, configure, and manage.”

The blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) will reportedly allow businesses to develop their networks more quickly and at a lower cost. It eliminates the need for provision hardware, creates and manages certificates for access control, installs software, and configures network settings. Pathak added:

“Amazon Managed Blockchain takes care of provisioning nodes, setting up the network, managing certificates, and security, and scaling the network. Customers can now get a functioning blockchain network set up quickly and easily, so they can focus on application development instead of keeping a blockchain network up and running.”

In addition, AMB provides simple APIs that allow customers to vote on memberships in their networks and to scale up or down more quickly.

Amazon states that AMB can scale to support thousands to millions of transactions. So far, companies like AT&T Business, Nestlé and the Singaporean investment market, the Singapore Exchange, have signed on to use Amazons Platform.

AMB is available immediately in North Virginia and will soon expand to other regions hopefully next year. Additionally, QLDB will be generally available in the coming months.

Last year in November when announcing the platform, Andy Jassy, the Amazon CEO said that Amazon had spent a lot of time understanding why customers want blockchain rather than a database.

Amazon combined the managed service with a centralized blockchain service, Amazon Quantum Ledger Database QLDB, that is reportedly a fully managed ledger database with a central trusted authority.