Once just two percent of servers run on blockchain technology, Bank of America research analyst Kash Rangan predicts the market for blockchain technology will be worth $7 billion. Nine companies have been identified as likely to benefit significantly from the technology including Amazon and Microsoft. As reported by CNBC, Rangan didn’t put a time stamp on his predictions but also included technology giants Oracle, IBM, Salesforce, and VMware as others set to benefit.

“Many blockchain use cases have been identified, but full products/services have not yet been built out and are not used in production,” said Rangan.

The analyst says that Amazon Web Services (AWS) will benefit “from incremental cloud services demand from blockchain implementation, while improved supply chain tracking should make Amazon’s retail operations more efficient.” Rangan also predicts that blockchain will improve software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms and that blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) will emerge to the benefit of the likes of Microsoft.

Amazon – the Rumors and the Reality

As one of the largest corporations in the world and one that is known for being quick to eliminate inefficiencies, Amazon is being watched carefully for blockchain or cryptocurrency adoption. Rumors often circulate about Amazon’s ownership of certain blockchain and cryptocurrency related web domains, prompting some to believe Amazon is about to take the leap.

The reality is not known. So far, Amazon’s AWS cloud computing arm has partnered with Kaleido to offer a blockchain-based platform for clients to build their projects. Kaleido, announced in May 2018, was the first Blockchain SaaS solution on the AWS Marketplace for business.

AWS appears to be looking to partnerships to bring blockchain to its clients rather than developing technology internally. Kaleido uses Ethereum blockchain technology. Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said in May,

“This is a heavy duty, full stack way of getting the company into blockchain solutions.”

Microsoft – Moving Data to Blockchain

Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service has been using blockchain technology for around three years.

Matt Kerner, general manager of Microsoft Azure, revealed that Microsoft has been looking to underpin blockchain into many of its other platforms including Office 365 and SAP. The overall plan, according to reports, is for Microsoft users to move their data from these platforms to the cloud and then onto blockchain.

Potentially to this end, Microsoft Azure has added Microsoft Flow and Logic Apps which can connect applications into the Azure Blockchain Workbench for developers. Kerner says this is part of the evolution of Big Data.

“Blockchain empowers the next step – enabling a single, authentic data set shared across counterparties. This is already improving the way transactions happen,” Kerner told CoinDesk in September 2018. “We believe the same will be true with data analytics.”

The Bank of America analyst’s predictions are based firmly in fact. Amazon, Microsoft and other technology leaders like Facebook and IBM are all investigating and beginning to adopt blockchain into their technology stacks. This blockchain utilization can only grow as none of these leviathans can afford to be left behind.