Microsoft is shutting down its Azure Blockchain Service on September 10, 2021, after being in service for around six years.
As of May 10, 2021, the company has stopped supporting new deployments or member creations.
However, it will continue to support existing deployments until September 10, 2021.
Microsoft initially offered Azure’s Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) in 2015, with an offering on the Etherum Platform in partnership with ConsenSys.
It was only in 2019 that the company launched the fully-managed consortium network, Azure Blockchain Service for the formation, management, and governance of consortium blockchain networks.
Microsoft has provided no explanation about the closure of Azure Blockchain. As per the official Microsoft Azure Blockchain Migration guide updated on May 10, 2021, it says that:
On September 10, 2021, Azure Blockchain will be retired. Please migrate ledger data from Azure Blockchain Service to an alternative offering based on your development status in production or evaluation.
The company strongly recommends all its users to migrate their ledger data from Azure Blockchain Service to ConsenSys’ Quorum Blockchain Service, which is a managed offering on Azure that supports GoQuorum Ledger technology.
“Expanding our relationship with Microsoft helps organizations take advantage of ConsenSys Quorum and Quorum customer support to offer users an enterprise-grade managed blockchain service that can be effortlessly set-up and deployed,” said Joseph Lubin, CEO and founder of ConsenSys.
“We are excited to bring the awarding-winning Quorum product to Azure users as the next step in our collaboration with Microsoft.”
Alternatively, users can opt to self-manage their blockchains using virtual machines (VMs).
How To Migrate To An Alternative:
- To migrate a production workload, first export your data from Azure Blockchain Service. Once you have a copy of your data, you can transition this data to your preferred alternative.
- The recommended migration destination is ConsenSys Quorum Blockchain Service. To onboard to this service, register at the Quorum Blockchain Service
- To self-manage your blockchain solution using virtual machines in Azure, see Azure VM-based Quorum guidance to set up transaction and validator nodes.
