The following article originally appeared in CoinDesk Weekly, a custom-curated newsletter delivered every Sunday, exclusively to our subscribers.

In a match reminiscent of the recent final of the Australian Open, in which two of the oldest top tennis players on the circuit competed for the title, two other old-timers are showing younger competitors that experience matters.

I'm talking about IBM and Microsoft, and the race to build a business-friendly blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform.

In the business world, unlike tennis, there can be more than one winner. And it may be rash to assume that the old market leaders will stay ahead of the pack, especially in a field so new. However, recent moves by the two companies to shore up their cloud offering with enterprise blockchain applications underline their market clout and privileged access to big clients.