Despite the interest from vendors, Blanchard said that there are still challenges around blockchain adoption from customers due to a lack of understanding and a hesitation to add a new back end data management process to their business models.

Vendors, for their part, are trying to overcome these hurdles – In January, an array of vendors including Cisco, consumer appliance manufacturer Bosch and digital security company Gemalto, announced they are developing a shared blockchain IoT protocol.  

Through the consortium, vendors will work with Fortune 500 companies and startups to define the scope and implementation of a protocol layer across several major blockchain systems – enabling new blockchain-enabled applications such as supply chain and logistics management.

Looking forward, more partners can tap into the opportunities around blockchain through looking at their existing analytics and business intelligence service capabilities, said Blanchard.

"When partners can demonstrate bringing together blockchain and data analytics as a holistic story, it’s a good starting point," he said. "If you have resources around Cortana, BI, and analytics, you can add to the size and duration of that offering by adding blockchain."