Microsoft Adds New Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Services to Azure Cloud

Microsoft Corp. is trying to create a bit of excitement for the Builders annual developer conference, launching several new tools and services designed to help software publishers make easier use of artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies.

The construction will take place next week in Seattle and the company plans to use this event to demonstrate the capabilities of its cloud computing software and services, which are increasingly becoming its main revenue stream. Today's announcements are intended to show how Microsoft Azure is the best cloud platform for AI, blockchain and edge computing, the company said.

First, Microsoft makes its Project Brainwave hardware-accelerated models typically running on on-site programmable gate matrices. Announced last year in preview, Project Brainwave's Azure Machine Learning hardware accelerated models are designed to accelerate the formation of AI models. The company also announces an overview of these models for peripheral devices, in partnership with Dell Technologies Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co.

True to AI, the company also supports ONNX Runtime processing on Nvidia Corp. processors. TensorRT and Intel Corp. nGraph running on Azure. ONNX Runtime is a high performance inference engine for ONNX format machine learning models on Linux, Windows and Mac.

The Azure Auto Learning Service is also updated, with features designed to facilitate the creation of high quality machine learning templates. New features include a new visual interface that allows non-developers to create models using a "no code" approach, the company said.

Cognitive services is another area of ​​interest. Microsoft adds new application programming interfaces to the "Decision" category, including its Anomaly Detector API, Content Moderator, and Personalizer API. The new APIs aim to add more decision-making capabilities to software applications, Microsoft said.

Blockchain becomes real

Engaging in another sensitive area, Microsoft is also stepping up its blockchain game with the launch of Azure Blockchain Services. This is a fully managed service for companies that want to create and manage their own distributed great books and build apps on top of them.

It is said that Azure Blockchain services integrate with Azure Active Directory for enabling permissions and monitoring of network activity and health. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Quorum, is an enterprise version of Ethereum designed for applications requiring high-speed, high-speed processing of private transactions.

"Quorum is a natural fit, because it builds on the popular Ethereum protocol, which brings together the world's largest blockchain developer community," said Mark Russinovich, chief technology officer at Azure in a statement. "It integrates with a wide range of open-source tools while supporting confidential transactions, which our corporate customers need."

Azure Blockchain Services is supposed to integrate with Visual Studio code so companies can create smart contracts and deploy them on their blockchains, with the code being managed through Azure DevOps. Additional integrations with Flow and Logic Apps make it easy to create applications for these smart contracts.

Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research Inc., told SiliconANGLE that Azure Blockchain services were an important step for Microsoft as distributed ledger technology was a key factor for next-generation applications.

"A blockchain application is almost always a new author, and businesses are turning to the cloud to power them," Mueller said. "And cloud service providers are doing everything in their power to make the creation and operation of blockchain applications as easy as possible."

Getting closer to the edge

The Internet of Things and advanced computing is another area of ​​major interest for Microsoft. The big game here is a new service called Azure SQL Database Edge, which is a version of the Azure SQL database that runs on ARM and x64 devices on the edge of a network. The service is currently previewed and is accessible via the Azure Early Adopter program.

In addition, a new IoT Plug-and-Play service is an open modeling language designed to make it easy to connect IoT devices to the cloud.

Finally, Microsoft announced the release of a developer edition of its HoloLens 2 helmet, announced earlier this year. The device, which superimposes digital information on the real world, costs $ 3,500 and could be used for activities such as security training and complex repair work, Microsoft said.

Photo: Michael Kappel / Flickr