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I've recently been asked to redevelop an .Net 2.0 WinForms application with a back end SQL Server Express DB.

One of the requirements is to allow remote users access to the application, so I've been considering hosted options to avoid VPN setup. The data is not sensitive and does not fall under data protection act, so a basic security approach for the web will cover me.

I like the idea of using Azure for a few reasons, but I'm not sure if a good fit for a users base of 5 or 6 with no real scope to grow. I've never used Azure and I plan to develop using MVC and a SQL backend as this is my main skillset.

A few points in favour of Azure in my mind are:

  • Tight integration with the TFS preview that I'm using for this project
  • Easy to setup a sandpit and a live version
  • Easy maintenance as I expect other hosted options will require more knowledge of underlying OS
  • Sticking to a full Microsoft stack should hopefully make things simpler

From what I find on the Azure site the message is all about scalability, which is great if you need it.

My question is simply, do you need a large user base, or plans to grow quickly, to use azure or is it how we should be hosting apps now?

littlechris
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2 Answers2

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What you're asking here is the perfect case for Windows Azure Web Sites:

  • You get 10 web sites for free (no custom DNS, but this is perfect for your 'sandpit'/test version). The shared mode supports custom DNS and is very cheap.
  • Tight integration with TFS preview and GitHub
  • You don't need to worry about the underlying OS, you simply publish from Visual Studio or with TFS Preview.
  • Sticking to the Microsoft stack is the easiest solution, but other technologies work great aswell. Since you're talking about MVC I'm assuming you are considering ASP.NET MVC, which is a perfect match with Windows Azure. Take a look at the training kit for some good examples.
  • The day you'll need a solution which more scalable (meaning you'll have more users and more income) you can easily upgrade to a reserved instance or to a Cloud Service (Web/Worker Role).
Sandrino Di Mattia
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    Beat me to it. Just for extra detail, with the Shared tier and a 1GB SQL database, you're looking at under $20 a month. – Mark Rendle Sep 24 '12 at 19:52
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About your question: "My question is simply, do you need a large user base, or plans to grow quickly, to use azure or is it how we should be hosting apps now?"

Windows Azure is a cloud service platform (includes PaaS as Cloud Services, IaaS as Windows Azure Virtual Machines and also Websites suggest by Sandrino above), and with cloud services you have ability to start very small and grow as much and as quickly as your user requirement is, so you can use Azure with both cases. On the other hand there are some advantages using certain offering depend on your which service you are going to use to run your application.

I think article (Section: "What Should I Use? Making a Choice") will explain the strategy about how you make a selection among various services.

This SO discussion does talks about the difference between cloud Services and Azure WebSites as well.

Community
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AvkashChauhan
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