How to Choose Windows Azure Websites, Web Roles, or VMs

Brian Swan

Jul. 02, 12 · Interview

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The June 7th update to Windows Azure introduced two new services (Widows Azure Websites and persistent VMs) that beg the question “When should I use a Windows Azure Website vs. a Web Role vs. a VM?” That’s exactly the question I’ll try to help you answer in this post. (I say “help you answer” because there is no simple, clear-cut answer in all cases. What I’ll try to do here is give you enough information to help you make an informed decision.)

The following table should give you some idea of what each option is ideal for:

Windows Azure Web Sites are ideal for…	Windows Azure Web Roles are ideal for...	Windows Azure Virtual Machines are ideal for...
Modern Web Apps Perfect if your app consists of client-side markup and scripting and/or server-side scripting and a database. You can scale out or up as needed.	Multi-tier Applications Applications that are composed of multiple tiers, each of which can be scaled independently (i.e. asynchronous background processing, like order processing) using both Web and Worker Roles.	Server Applications Existing applications that leverage SQL Server, MySQL, MongoDB, Sharepoint Server, etc.
Continuous Development Deploy directly from your source code repository using Git or Team Foundation Service.	Apps that require advanced administration Applications that require admin access, remote desktop access, or running code with elevated privileges.	Existing line-of-business apps Choose an image from the gallery or upload your own VHD.
Popular Open Source Apps Launch a site with a few clicks using apps like WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal.	Apps that require advanced networking Applications that require network isolation with Windows Azure Connect or Windows Azure Virtual Network.	Windows or Linux Support for Windows Server and community/commercial versions of Linux. Connect VMs with Cloud Services to take advantage of PaaS services.

Actually, I think the use cases for VMs are wide open. You can use them for just about anything you could imagine using a VM for. The tougher distinction (and decision) is between Web Sites and Web Roles. The following table should give you some idea of what Windows Azure features are available in Web Sites and Web Roles:

Feature	Web Sites	Web Roles
Access to services like Caching, Service Bus, Storage, SQL Azure Database	Yes	Yes
Support for ASP.NET, classic ASP, Node.js, PHP	Yes	Yes
Shared content and configuration	Yes	No
Deploy code with GIT, FTP	Yes	No
Near-instant deployment	Yes	No
Integrated MySQL-as-a-service support	Yes	Yes*
Multiple deployment environments (production and staging)	No	Yes
Network isolation	No	Yes
Remote desktop access to servers	No	Yes
Ability to run programs with elevated permissions	No	Yes
Ability to define/execute start-up tasks	No	Yes
Ability to use unsupported frameworks or libraries	No	Yes
Support for Windows Azure Connect/ Windows Azure Network	No	Yes

* Web or Worker Roles can integrate MySQL-as-a-service through ClearDB's offerings, but not as part of the Management Portal workflow.

As I said earlier, it’s impossible to provide a definitive answer to the question of which option you should use (Web Sites, Web Roles, or VMs). It really does depend on your application. With that said, I hope the information in the tables above helps you decide what is right for your application. Of course, if you have any questions and/or feedback, let us know in the comments.

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