Azure Web Hosting

Kassem

Ok my client has just called me and she's complaining that the uptime of the hosting account is terrible, and she is right. So we're considering maybe we should move to a new web host. I've heard a lot about Azure and I would like to get some feedback from anyone that has some experience with it.

1. Have you ever deployed a production website to Azure?
2. How easy was it to deploy the website?
3. What about uptime? Any notable issues?
4. What about security? Is it fully trust-worthy (considering we've done the best we could in code)...
5. Any recommending companies?

ali-koubeissi

Please don't bother with Azure. It's way too expensive and a huge headache. If you want to go cloud-based hosting, I cannot recommend enough AppHarbor; Azure done right ;). All you have to do it commit your code and if your website gets busy simply add new instances and your web application will scale without any extra effort (a matter of mouse clicks).

AppHarbor website

Ninja edit: The default configuration is completely free (1 instance and 20 mb shared database).

Kassem

Looks interesting but honestly I did not understand much. My code will be hosted on git? My database will be hosted on AppHarbor? What do you mean by "add new instances"?

P.S: Sorry for asking too much. I know I should be doing my homework rather than throwing it your face, but I'm honest VERY squeezed with time. So a little more explanation would be helpful - makes it easier to convince my client :)

ali-koubeissi

That is all right, I'm sorry for not explaining.

You will be using Git to submit your code to Appharbor. Appharbor will compile your code and makes it available. Everything is hosted on appharbor; application and database.

You can look at AppHarbor as a layer on top of cloud computing. It removes all the headaches and burden from the developer. Their platform will handle everything, all you have to worry about is your code.

You can think of an instance is another web application serving your clients. On a traditional hosting you would add more web servers when you have more traffic and then you load balance between your servers. That's what happens with instances except that all you have to do is add another instance from their interface. When you add another instance, your application will be load-balanced automagically between 2 instances. More instances => more traffic, assuming that the database is not an issue here.

You're already using ASP.NET MVC3. You need GIT on windows (Git + Git extensions) so you could use it from Visual Studio directly. Write code -> Commit to Appharbor. They do have a small video on how to setup everything, have a look at it.

Joe

I don't know much about AppHarbor (although they look pretty neat). However, Azure is not made for you. It is aimed at large enterprise applications, with big corporations to back them up. The system is pretty good, works really well with .NET. The complexity is diabolical. As Ali said, it's way too expensive. After all you're not the target customer :-)

jsaade

rahmu wroteI don't know much about AppHarbor (although they look pretty neat). However, Azure is not made for you. It is aimed at large enterprise applications, with big corporations to back them up. The system is pretty good, works really well with .NET. The complexity is diabolical. As Ali said, it's way too expensive. After all you're not the target customer :-)

Sadly that was not the original Aim of Azure

my friend (yes he is Lebanese.) is one of the engineers of the MS team behind Azure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZZxrtTwjwc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHWdsKW8-mg

The Aim was something much more competitive but a lot has changed and added layers of complexity ending up in a product very outdated (when it launched compared to its competitors) and very hard to work with (Although I am not .net oriented).

xterm

Hey! Thanks for AppHarbor, haven't seen it before.

Kassem

So I tried convincing my client into using AppHarbor, she complained that it is hosted in USA while we're actually looking for a UK based web host. I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference whether the site is hosted in USA or the UK, but that's her requirement. She did say though, that AppHarbor could be our last resort in case we couldn't find a better UK-based alternative.

@Ali: Thanks for the explanation, appreciated :)

ali-koubeissi

Kindly explain to her why it doesn't matter where the application is hosted. Go and host your application right now (AppHarbor is initially free) and show her that it doesn't matter.

scatman

Have you ever deployed a production website to Azure?

Yes... actually i had the website already developed as a .net web application. i had to convert it to cloud.
I just had to convert my upload functions to save in BLOB (azure storage) and i had to use sql azure which had some limitations like no support for CLR.

How easy was it to deploy the website?

very very easy.... easier than iis deployment!

What about uptime? Any notable issues?

nope.... didn't have any issues

What about security? Is it fully trust-worthy

its secured by GFS.... very good security