Azure Confidential Ledger Overview and Setup Guide

Azure Confidential Ledger is a decentralized, permissionless, and censorship-resistant ledger that allows for the creation and management of confidential and tamper-evident data. It's designed to provide a secure and transparent way to store and manage sensitive information.

Azure Confidential Ledger is built on top of the Azure blockchain platform, which provides a scalable and highly available infrastructure for ledger operations. This means you can rely on Azure's robust infrastructure to support your ledger's growth and needs.

To get started with Azure Confidential Ledger, you'll need to create a ledger instance, which is a self-contained, permissioned ledger that can be used for specific use cases. You can create a ledger instance using the Azure portal or through the Azure CLI.

To get started with Azure Confidential Ledger, you'll need a few things in place. An Azure subscription is the first requirement, so make sure you have one set up. A running instance of Azure Confidential Ledger is also necessary, which can be achieved by following the setup process.

You'll also need to have a registered user in the Confidential Ledger with Administrator privileges. This will give you the necessary access to manage the ledger.

Once you have these prerequisites met, you can start writing code to use the ledger. The control plane library is used to manage ledgers, which includes creating, deleting, and listing them. All actions need to be associated with an Azure account, setting up the basic details of a ledger before a data plane application adds data to the ledger.

The data plane library is used for writing unstructured data to the ledger. A client needs to use the ledger certificate to authenticate a connection, using its endpoint URL and application credentials. Adding a record is simply a matter of appending a new entry, with the entry contents a simple string.

Here's a quick rundown of the steps to get started:

Azure Configuration is a crucial step in setting up Azure Confidential Ledger. You can configure Azure Confidential Ledger using the Azure portal or Azure CLI.

To configure Azure Confidential Ledger, you'll need to create a resource group and a ledger instance. This involves specifying the location, name, and SKU of the ledger instance.

The SKU of the ledger instance determines the amount of data storage and the number of transactions per second. Azure Confidential Ledger supports three SKUs: Standard, Premium, and Enterprise.

To get started with Azure Confidential Ledger, you'll need to meet some prerequisites. You'll need an Azure subscription, a running instance of Azure Confidential Ledger, and a registered user in the Confidential Ledger with Administrator privileges.

The first step is to ensure you have a globally unique name for your ledger, as this will help prevent collisions with other ledgers.

A ledger needs to have a unique name to function correctly.

You'll use the control plane library to manage your ledger, which includes creating, deleting, and listing them. This library is associated with an Azure account and sets up the basic details of a ledger before a data plane application adds data to the ledger.

Here are the prerequisites for using Azure Confidential Ledger:

The data plane library is used to write unstructured data to the ledger, and it's relatively simple to use. A client needs to use the ledger certificate to authenticate a connection, using its endpoint URL and application credentials.

You can use Azure Active Directory to authenticate to the Confidential Ledger with DefaultAzureCredential.

If you create a ledger without an administrator, the AAD/cert gets admin rights, and that identity can be used to manage the ledger.

Users are managed directly with the Confidential Ledger instead of through Azure, and new users may be AAD-based or certificate-based.

Any of the credentials offered by Azure.Identity will be accepted, so you can choose the one that suits your needs best.

At Microsoft Build 2021, several exciting updates were announced that showcase the company's commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction. Microsoft took another stab at a Blockchain-powered ledger service, building on the idea that blockchain is a distributed ledger.

Azure Confidential Ledger (ACL) was revealed, which adds an extra layer of security and scalability on top of blockchain. ACL uses the Azure Confidential Computing Platform, which means an instance of ACL runs in a dedicated and fully attested hardware-backed enclave.

This is a game-changer for businesses that need to exchange contracts and deeds securely. ACL works well when users need audit logging and tracking of highly sensitive admin operations. Microsoft officials suggested that healthcare, financial, and retail industries would be good candidates for ACL.

ACL is built on top of the Confidential Consortium Framework (CCF), which was first shown off publicly in 2017. The CCF is designed to be used on-premises and/or in various vendors' clouds, officials said.

Here are some key benefits of ACL:

It's worth noting that ACL doesn't replace Azure Blockchain Service, but rather provides another distributed ledger option for customers who require maximum privacy.

Azure Confidential Ledger is a single-party system, with multiple replicas for redundancy.

This means you can enjoy the benefits of secure blockchain storage without the complexity of large-scale distributed systems.

The system is designed to provide a single source of validated truth for a line-of-business system, which is especially important in regulated industries where data security is paramount.

Ensuring that confidential data is stored securely is perhaps the most important aspect of such a system, and Azure Confidential Ledger delivers on this promise.

By locking down the system to a set of trusted secure environments with only API-based access, you minimize the attack surface and add an additional level of security.

In effect, Azure Confidential Ledger is a "confidential computing as a service" that allows you to get the benefits without the complexity.