Last tuesday I presented a session at another local Microsoft event, this time focused on Azure Websites and the new features announced at Build 2013 (which I attended) and since then.
The session was mostly demo-based, and included the “traditional” WebMatrix/WordPress demo, but with the added value of demoing a content migration from another blog engine. After this I did a continuous integration, test and automated deployment demo. Didn’t have the time to show custom deployment scripts, but it was the star of the show, in my opinion. It’s easy to get it working and covers a large percentage of Webdev use cases. The following demo was simply showing how to associate a custom domain to a web site, and what is possible in terms of SSL (both kinds, SNI&IP).
The next demo was related to a request and the need to clarify that you can host wcf web services in an Azure WebSite, and for this demo I also showed , especially helpful for diagnostics and operations.
I ended the session talking about architecture, scaling, service tiers and pricing, and a Q&A. There were several questions, perhaps the most relevant being about Azure Web Sites vs Azure Web Roles. The stronger scaling possibilities, and running setup scripts, are strong arguments for Web Roles, the simplicity and more focused web offering, for Web Sites. This would be my choice, in general.
Another interesting event, with good session feedback.
