BaaS vendor competition: different tracks and different postures

In recent years, major companies have been competing in the BaaS field, and the current status of BaaS is somewhat similar to the initial stage of cloud computing.

On the one hand, the influx of giants, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and other cloud service providers are not absent; on the other hand, BaaS is almost the standard for blockchain technology solutions providers. Nowadays, BaaS is welcoming newcomers, and vertical giants are also beginning to explore BaaS, such as BaaS, BaaS and 58 BaaS.

At first glance, large and small manufacturers are competing for layout, and the competition is fierce. In fact, the market for blockchain enterprises is very large, and each manufacturer has different tracks, and their advantages and disadvantages are different.

Moreover, this is an early market, and small businesses can seize the opportunities and hope to become the head of the future industry.

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Are the giants standing, is BaaS a blue ocean?

The BaaS platform provides enterprise-level blockchain network and application creation, management, and operation and maintenance services, reducing the threshold and cost of deploying blockchains. The Blockchain-as-a-Service Platform BaaS White Paper, led by the China Institute of Information and Communications, said that the combination of blockchain and cloud computing is expected to become the infrastructure of public credit.

According to ABI Research's BaaS Competition Assessment Report for the fourth quarter of 2018, BaaS services are still in their early stages. The first BaaS solutions appeared in 2017, most of which were concentrated in 2018. Domestic BATJ giants have also landed on the BaaS platform.

In China, Tencent is the first company to deploy the BaaS platform. In April 2017, the Tencent Blockchain Solution White Paper was released. In November of the same year, the BaaS platform was launched. In July of the same year, Baidu also launched the blockchain development platform BaaS. In August 2018, Jingdong launched its enterprise-level blockchain service platform, Jingdong Zhiyi Chain. In the same period, Alibaba Cloud also released the BaaS platform, which developed rapidly with the accumulation of resources in the field of cloud computing. Subsequently, major companies gradually launched their own BaaS platform.

Undoubtedly, the BaaS market comes from the demand for blockchain technology in all walks of life. The blockchain is still an early industry. It can be said that no research institution can accurately estimate the size of this market.

As is widely believed in the industry, the blockchain is an infrastructure like the Internet, and is quietly carrying out the “blockchain+industry” campaign. With the growth of blockchain technology and the massive outbreak of blockchain applications, more companies will need to use the BaaS platform.

The status quo of BaaS may be like the beginning of cloud computing: there are many manufacturers in the layout, but there is no such big market demand at present. Liu Yaowei, the technical director of interesting chain technology, told Zinc Link, "But this is an early market, or it can seize the opportunity." It is expected to be the head of the future industry."

Dachang Xiaochang: Different tracks and different postures

Technically, there may not be much difference between the families, and there may be a slight leader, but due to the open source nature of the blockchain, latecomers can catch up quickly.

So what is the difference? Through industry visits, zinc links are summarized, according to the main body, the current BaaS platform on the market is mainly divided into three categories:

1. Cloud service providers, Microsoft Azure, IBM, Amazon AWS, Oracle, Google, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Huawei Cloud, etc.;

2. Blockchain solution providers, such as the fun chain technology Feiluo platform, paper expensive Z-BaaS, number Qin Baoquan cloud BaaS, etc.;

3. Vertical industry giants, such as Huada Gene BaaS, 58 City BaaS.

Although these three categories are all BaaS, there is no small difference.

First of all, cloud service giants, no one is absent from BaaS.

On the one hand, the “cloud” of enterprise services has become an increasingly clear trend. The cloud computing market is fiercely competitive. Suppliers are trying to break through with new technologies. BaaS is one of the springboards.

In foreign countries, Amazon is the first placer of cloud services, and sits firmly in the market. Secondly, Microsoft and IBM are the first to lay out BaaS. From the end of 2015 to the beginning of 2016, Microsoft and IBM have successively proposed the BaaS concept.

In China, Alibaba Cloud occupies nearly half of the enterprise cloud service market. As a latecomer, Tencent Cloud and Huawei Cloud are not to be outdone. While competing for layout, while actively seeking "pedal", the BaaS program has been one of them.

On the other hand, for the cloud service giant, the focus of sales is still on IaaS, and BaaS is indispensable, but it is far from the main position. Therefore, they often choose to purchase the underlying technology of the blockchain solution provider and package it with the original cloud service.

Second, for blockchain solution providers, BaaS is the standard for business. They are more concerned with the blockchain technology solution itself, and jointly develop different BaaS landing scenarios in different vertical industries.

In October 2018, Fun Chain Technology launched the blockchain open service platform Feiluo, open to independent developers and enterprise users, providing free public chain and on-demand purchase of alliance chain services, and supporting a series of blocks. Chain application development tools to achieve intelligent contract visualization, security detection, formal verification, IDE plug-in support. In addition, Feiluo provides a scenario service platform on top of basic services, including the Feilo supply chain for supply chain finance and the Feiluo printing for traceability traceability.

According to reports, the Feiluo supply chain has already had a number of factoring organizations and hundreds of supply chain companies settled in, reaching hundreds of millions of receivables financing. Feiluo Printing has also been widely used in electronic contracts, drug traceability, and e-Cert.

Furthermore, the head enterprise in the vertical field, this is a new entry in the BaaS field since the end of last year.

In addition, in April of this year, Huada Gene released a white paper on the BaaS platform to locate the more vertical scene of “life data”. 58 Group has also launched 58BaaS, focusing on recruitment, used cars, real estate and other scenes. However, the Zinc Link contacted the relevant staff of the 58 Group and was replied that “it was a short-term attempt within the group last year and the project has terminated the process”.

The choice of the chain enterprise: self-built chain or BaaS? Whose BaaS?

Shao Bing, director of the blockchain product of Tencent Cloud, told Zinc Link that BaaS is suitable for most companies, especially those that only want to pay attention to the upper-level business and do not want to spend too much energy on chain and chain management.

How can companies choose the right BaaS platform among many large and small manufacturers?

In the communication with the relevant person in charge of several BaaS platform vendors, Zinc Link learned that the BaaS solution does not have much difficulty in technology, and the difficulty lies in how to combine technology with actual business to achieve the landing.

At present, the mainstream BaaS on the market provides alliance chain services, which are similar in function. The domestic implementation is in accordance with the BaaS standard of the Institute.

Shao Bing believes that the differentiated competition of BaaS lies in how technology is integrated with the business, that is, the industry's landing.

Below is a list of Gartner assessments that reflect the current state of development of BaaS. First, most manufacturers' blockchain cloud services are based on the two mainstream distributed ledger technologies of Ethereum and superbooks. Second, application exploration is concentrated in the alliance chain, involving very few public chains. Third, security Sex and ease of use are lower; fourth, there are fewer landing cases.

(from the Gartner report screenshot)

The main area of ​​Tencent TBaAS is financial. According to Shao Bing, at present, the Tencent Cloud TBaAS platform has successfully settled in the financial, insurance, retail, medical, and public welfare industries. Especially in the financial industry, TBaaS covers almost all financial applications, and this is determined by the genes of the TBaaS team. The TBaaS team was formed by Tencent Cloud Financial Business Unit, and its underlying technology was built from Tencent Financial Cloud.

According to the usage, there are generally two types. One is to use the centralized service provided by the manufacturer, such as the public version based on the cloud service, and the other is to privatize the deployment based on the actual situation of the customer.

Shao Bing believes that the key to BaaS lies in services. The choice of BaaS platform depends on its underlying infrastructure capabilities, performance stability, security, deployment and operation and maintenance costs, and functional integrity to meet business needs.

The Gartner report believes that the adaptive blockchain technology platform should be preferred and the cloud service provider supporting the platform should be selected.

In summary, the BaaS service and the blockchain node are only auxiliary tools. The enterprise should choose the blockchain technology solution suitable for the business, and then select the service provider according to the plan.

As the process of industrial blockchain accelerates, the demand for blockchain technology continues to increase. Deloitte's "2018 Global Blockchain Survey Report" shows that enterprises have begun to really apply blockchain technology, and the application of landing blockchain is increasing.

The value of the BaaS platform is to liberate the hands of the company, allowing companies to focus more on business development without having to invest too much in technology.

(Text: Chen Haining; Editor: Wang Qiao; Source: Zinc Link)

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