If you’re building cloud-native applications you need a reliable, efficient data platform. Reliable microservices need a way to store state, whether in NoSQL key/value systems or massively scalable SQL databases. It’s no different in Azure, and Microsoft has been building out its cloud data offering during the past few years to give developers a mix of its own proprietary and open source data platforms.

At its Build 2021 developer event, Microsoft is unveiling some major changes to that data platform, aiming to make it more attractive to developers and offer features that will help build a new generation of applications.

Azure SQL adds an immutable ledger

One of the more fascinating items, the launch of a ledger feature for Azure SQL, makes more sense of the announcement that Microsoft is closing Azure’s blockchain-as-a-service platform. Much of enterprise blockchain development has focused on its role as an immutable source of transaction data, where systems and processes need a trustworthy record of what has been done and by whom.

This is where modern ledgers come in, as a way of creating that blockchain-like verification model. Here, however, the ledger is just another table in a familiar database that can provide that point of trust without requiring a complete redesign and redevelopment of your application. There’s no point in replacing an existing database with a complex, relatively slow blockchain if all you need to do is add a new cryptographically secure ledger table to an existing database to manage that data.

There’s no need to learn new skills or implement new tools, as this is all part of the familiar SQL Server running on Azure. Existing applications can be updated to add ledgers without needing new code. It can all be managed inside the database with database developers and administrators using existing database management tools.

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