Technology & IT | Wednesday 2 May, 2018 3:15 pm |

In its ongoing commitment to blockchain technology, and reiterating its support to the UAE Blockchain strategy 2021, Microsoft Gulf today participated in the Future blockchain summit, a key regional event hosted by Smart Dubai.

 

The event taking place on 2nd and 3rd of May at the Dubai World trade Center, aims to be the gateway to the world's most advanced blockchain government and a meeting ground for industry leaders and tech start-ups. More than 9,000 people are expected to visit the Future blockchain Summit and hear from over 60 speakers specialising in all areas of the blockchain ecosystem, and learn how these solutions can be implemented across industries.

Microsoft marked its presence at the event as the Level 1 Partner and participated in various activities. Necip Ozyucel, Cloud & Enterprise Business Group lead for the company’s gulf region participated in a panel discussion in the Energy Track, to highlight ‘How is Blockchain transforming the energy industry’. And Nuri Cankaya, Business Lead - Azure for Microsoft Middle East & Africa took part in the Finance Track to talk on ‘Blockchain on Azure’ and how it can transform the financial services industry by simplifying development, increasing agility and enhancing security. 

 

Microsoft also showcased game-changing technology solutions such as the ‘Azure IoT Blockchain solution’ for the supply chain industry. Experts, at the company’s booth demonstrated how tracking and enforcing compliance of transactions that are implemented within the Blockchain network and IoT Devices sensors, integrate well with the system to ensure highest quality of shipping conditions. IoT devices can also keep track of temperature and humidity and even potentially track location while transporting goods to ensure compliance standards of transporting those goods are met well. 

 

The second demonstration ‘Know your Customer’ (KYC) was focused towards the financial services sector, that enables banks and institutions to gain more control over their customer data. Using blockchain as a foundational architecture for identity applications, can allow banks to provide people with digitally-stored identity via an app. Rather than centrally storing that information on the device, at the premise, or even centrally in the cloud, blockchain allows that information to be replicated across the chain and therefore backed up, immutably across the network and more importantly, not in a central repository.

 

The Dubai Future Foundation cited studies that predict the global market for digital transactions will reach $9.5 billion by 2021. During the same period, worldwide investments in blockchain technology are expected to surpass $300 billion. Earlier in April, at the Launch of UAE Blockchain strategy 2021, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said that the adoption of blockchain would help the government prepare for future challenges and contribute to saving AED11 billion spent annually on document transactions and documents, 77 million hours of work, reduce government documents by 389 million, and save 1.6 billion kilometres spent driving.

 

“Investments in Blockchain have captured the interest of business leaders and governments, as it has the potential to significantly transform markets and industries – from banking to government to healthcare and more” Said Necip Ozyucel, Cloud & Enterprise Business Group Lead, Microsoft Gulf. “At Microsoft, we are on the forefront of this transformation, as we continue lead the way in this next era of computing and advancing the enterprise readiness of blockchain. Our ambition is to provide open blockchain platforms and services that speed adoption, and drive real business, economic and social value to the world.”

 

Microsoft partners, Avanza Solutions and Docswallet Digital Locker also participated at the Future Blockchain summit and demonstrated their blockchain solutions hosted on the Microsoft Azure Cloud. 

 ‘Docswallet Digital Locker enables users to get digitally certified copies of documents in Blockchain from their official sources, store and organise them in a locker, and submit them as required. The introduction of the Docswallet ‘Digitally certified documents on blockchain’ is as much about protecting the privacy of users as it is about strengthening the integrity of the document authentication process. 

 

Avanza demonstrated ‘Cipher’, an Innovative Blockchain orchestration platform. The solution has recently been made ready and available on Microsoft Azure, and gives customers access to a Blockchain orchestration layer on the cloud. Now organizations can move past the underlying complexities of establishing blockchain based solutions and move towards greater reliability and security through this full stack offering that includes Single point access to Blockchain platforms, readymade adapters to provide rapid integration with existing blockchain technologies, Smart contract lifecycle and change management; and Access to enterprise-grade infrastructure through Microsoft Azure.