Microsoft first launched its Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service option in November of last year. Now, the company is extending the offering with a bunch of new tools that enable developers to build an entire ecosystem of enterprise applications atop of the service.

The newly unveiled “Project Bletchley” is Microsoft’s term for the new pair of tools, which are designed to expand the potential use cases for the Azure-based Blockchain. The company is hoping the tools will help developers to get more utility out of the service.

The first of those tools is something called “Cryplets”, which is a bunch of services that allow companies to pull in more data from outside the blockchain, without worrying about security issued. The cryplets are compatible with all programming languages, and can be run from inside containers.

Also new is what Microsoft refers to as “blockchain middleware” which will, according to the company, “provide core services functioning in the cloud, like identity and operations management, in addition to data and intelligence services like analytics and machine learning”. Users can integrate this middleware with the blockchain via cryplets.

One key advantage of Microsoft’s cryplets and middleware is they’re agnostic, which means they can both be used regardless of the underlying Blockchain platform that’s used. For example, Microsoft’s cryplets can easily be integrated with the Ethereum Blockchain that supports Smart Contracts.

Microsoft is making an aggressive bid to become the market leader in Blockchain services at a time when many enterprises are just beginning to show an interest in the technology’s capabilities. By providing this kind of middleware, the service potentially becomes a lot more useful to businesses worried about data integrity and security.

Marley Gray, Microsoft’s director of blockchain business development and strategy, who has also penned a whitepaper on Project Bletchley, said in a blog post that the addition of the new tools is somewhat similar to how computing evolved with the advent of the Internet. Just as many companies use middleware to get around the shortcomings of client-server architecture, they will be able to use Blockchain middleware to create much more powerful applications, Gray insisted.

If Microsoft is right about the Blockchain underpinning the future of business applications, it seems to be positioning itself as the cutting edge of a massive new opportunity. Its Blockchain initiative has already made solid inroads, with more than forty banks from the R3 CEV consortium recently signing up to use the Azure-based Blockchain-as-a-Service.

Project Bletchley is still in its early days, and Gray said Microsoft will reveal much more about its plans when it hosts its Worldwide Partner Conference next month in Toronto.

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