Azure Hosting

Azure Hosting... If you are not in the .NET world then either you don't have a clue what it is or you may think, yet another useless product from Microsoft.

Actually I'm surprised by the platform Microsoft created here. Sure you could see it as a "hosting" platform like there is many around, from the incredible Amazon AWS to Google, or the traditional VPS / Shared hosts you may find around. I have to admit I never used AWS or Google (or not so far), and with the hosting companies I tend to have a mixed feeling. From cheap and crappy offering to expensive one which at the end could end up badly after somebody tries to DDoS your site.

I tested many hosting and all come with their pro / cons.

Azure is for far another beast for me. First of all their portal is one of the most complex to start using. I never saw such interface and never had to click so many panels to do what I wanted, but after you took grip over it you start to understand why it's like that. Basically you can do all from there, from a simple free (yes really free) shared host to a full featured cloud VPS or cluster.

If you go for the payed services it will of course not be so cheap and you could find better options for less money but you will hardly have all the features offered like they offer it.

Some examples:
- Want to create a couple of web servers around the world? You can create as many hosts on nearly all around the globe at your choice.
- Want to see the events generated by your soft? Yes there is a panel for it.
- Want to create your own SQL server with backup and even replication? Yes you can as well.

Overall I find the experience quite incredible, even if takes a bit of time and efforts to understand it. After that you can develop your soft on your Visual Studio and press "publish" and have it running on your Azure host. Personally that's all I currently need for my hobby project.