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Azure web roles vs web sites

Published Thursday 28 June 2012

azurelogoWebsites are new in Azure From conversations and talks at Teched:

Web Roles Websites
The standard offering New (summer 2012). In preview and discounted at time of writing.
For asp.net/php/html same
Use Azure SQL/Blobs/Table storage. Can use the new Caching. same
- Has a persistent shared disk.
Production and staging. Instant switch for releases. No. You upload to the live site, so a long release will mean the site is broken for that time ( but see below- you can do diff releases)
Can install dependencies (3rd party installations etc, GAC) Bin-deployment of dlls only - or one of a small number of packages like Umbracco.
Release as cspack. Spins up new VMs for each release. Release by web deploy, git, TFS, FTP.
RDP access No. Just FTP.
   

In conclusion:

Web sites simplify the story for simple web sites. But having no staging is a bit limited.

Web roles are better for more complex sites, with dependencies and/or worker roles.

There is no option to upgrade a website to a web role.

All the above will probably be obsolete is 6 months as the features expand.

Previously: EF Code First - Add a DTO (21 Mar 2012)