Websites 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.