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azureasp.net-4.0azure-sql-databasecloud-hosting

Windows azure web app hosting

I have been scratching my head for sometime know to get my problem sorted out it might sound stupid but here it goes....

when we make a simple web site using asp.net to avail it for everyone to use it we do something similar

  1. Patent a web address/url for any where like godaddy etc.

  2. Than find a hosting provider to host our website on the domain name that we have taken.

  3. Hosting provider provide us with a disk space and database space that vary upon provider.

  4. One more that comes into a picture is the traffic that is handled by the provider.

Now my situation. I am developing a cloud web app using windows azure to make it live i have to do some similar steps above mentioned. Questions related to it......

  1. Can i take any domain name(ie, available) from any service provider.
  2. What about the hosting how it is done .
  3. i know that if i want to use sql azure Microsoft is offering some plans but i have found that too costly.
  4. What is the best option for database to have a cost effective solution.

Just an FYI My website is an in house project that will be having some 2-5 users for it.

Solution

  • Specifically:

    1. Yes, you can then point your domain name to the Azure host used for your system
    2. Azure provides a host for your application: you can publish directly to this from Visual Studio.
    3. Yes, SQL Azure can be expensive for small applications: it's probably not the best choice for that.

    Azure, like many cloud-based solutions, is really intended for applications that need to scale easily and where a minimum of down-time is essential.

    If you're working with only a few users, you might find it better to use either shared hosting or a shared virtual host instead.

    Shared hosting is the cheapest option (a few dollars per month) but you'll most likely be restricted in what you can do on that host, disk space, database access and so on.

    A virtual host might be the best bet. For a few dollars more you'll get Administrator access to a reasonable sized virtual machine where you can install anything, including a database such as MySQL. The main drawback is that you'll need to keep the server up-to-date with patches etc. yourself and that scaling the application beyond a few hundred simultaneous users with a server farm will be harder.