R3CEV and Microsoft formally establish a partnership to study and experiment with blockchain applications

R3CEV, a blockchain alliance composed of 42 international banks, has announced a formal partnership with technology giant Microsoft. R3CEV is committed to researching blockchain applications and its members include JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs Group and others.

The full partnership, which was first tested by a small group of R3 members in January, will do more than enable the consortium to use Microsoft’s blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform.

Charley Cooper, managing director of R3, told CoinDesk that the five-person Microsoft team is now working directly with consortium members after a series of tests with other potential partners, including Amazon and IBM.

Cooper told CoinDesk:

“Through experimentation, we began to realize that Microsoft had both human and technical expertise that made them an ideal partner.”

Charley Cooper

Under the non-exclusive agreement, Microsoft will make 45 cloud tools available through its Azure platform, including those created by ConsenSys, Ripple, Eris Industries, Factom, BitPay and other startups.

In addition to software, Microsoft has also established a team of dedicated technical architects, project managers, lab assistants, and logistics personnel to collaborate with global R3CEV Alliance members.

R3CEV began working on its partnership with Microsoft in January after 11 R3 consortium members, including Barclays, Credit Suisse and Well Fargo, completed testing a private version of the ethereum network using Microsoft’s Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platform.

Peggy Johnson, executive vice president of Worldwide Business Development at Microsoft, said:

“R3 and its member banks will experiment and learn quickly to accelerate the deployment of distributed ledger technologies. Moreover, our collaboration will create great opportunities to rethink business processes and transform entire industries.”

Peggy Johnson

Page also wrote in another blog that Microsoft's collaboration with R3CEV will help streamline back-end operations, potentially saving the company billions of dollars.

In the coming weeks and months, Cooper said he expects to expand the scope of his work with Microsoft, though that will depend on how the company progresses with the banking consortium.

Cooper said:

“We believe that the cooperation between Microsoft and R3CEV will not be limited to a few trials, but will be a long-term cooperation.”

Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/consortium-of-global-banks-formalizes-partnership-with-microsoft/
By Michael del Castillo
Compiled by: Kyle
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/r3cev-partnership-with-microsoft)