Microsoft Azure Web Sites Simplified Development and Deployment

Microsoft Azure Web Sites makes development and deployment a breeze, allowing you to focus on writing code rather than worrying about the infrastructure.

With Azure Web Sites, you can deploy your website in just a few clicks, without having to provision or manage any servers.

This streamlined process saves you time and reduces the complexity of deploying a website, making it ideal for developers of all levels.

By leveraging the scalability and reliability of the cloud, Azure Web Sites ensures your website is always available and can handle a large volume of traffic.

Creating a website in Azure is a straightforward process. To start, you'll need to log in to your management portal.

Click the 'New' button at the bottom left corner of the screen to begin the website creation process. From there, select 'Compute' and then 'Web Apps' to access the Quick Create option.

Enter the required details, such as those shown in the picture, and click 'Create Web App' to proceed. This will initiate the website creation process.

After creating your website, navigate back to the websites section in your management portal to find it listed.

Configuring the website is a crucial step in setting up your Microsoft Azure Web Site. You can configure the default document, which is the web page displayed at the root URL of your app, by adding a new document in the Azure portal.

To add a default document, you can also use the Azure CLI command az resource update. This method allows you to modify the updating app's PowerShell object.

The default document is the first matching file in the list, so make sure to prioritize the most important files. If your app uses modules that route based on URL instead of serving static content, you can skip configuring default documents.

You can customize the IIS handler mappings and virtual applications and directories for Windows apps. This allows you to add custom script processors to handle requests for specific file extensions.

To add a custom handler, select New handler mapping in the Azure portal and configure the handler accordingly. Don't forget to select Save in the Configuration page.

Editing app settings in bulk can be done using the Azure CLI command az webapp config app settings set. You can save existing settings into a JSON file with az webapp config appsettings list, and then run the example command in Bash to update the settings.

Here's an example of the JSON file format needed for bulk editing:

```json

[

{

"name": "setting1",

"slotSetting": "setting1_slot",

"value": "value1"

},

{

"name": "setting2",

"slotSetting": "setting2_slot",

"value": "value2"

}

]

```

Note that the slot setting field is optional.

Publishing a website from Visual Studio is a straightforward process. You can publish your website to Azure by going to Solution Explorer, right-clicking on the website/webapp name, and choosing 'publish'.

To connect to your Azure subscription account, click 'Import' and then 'Add Azure Subscription'. For the first time, you'll need to download a subscription file with a .publishsetting extension. This file will be used to authenticate your Azure subscription.

After authenticating, you can browse for the downloaded file and select your subscription. From there, you can choose the website you want to deploy and select the 'Web Deploy' method. Finally, click 'Publish' to deploy your website to Azure.

Deploying a dynamic website is a straightforward process.

To get started, you need to connect to your Azure subscription account. This is done by clicking 'Import' in the publish window.

You'll then need to download a subscription file with a .publishsetting extension. This file will be downloaded to your computer, and you'll need to browse for it in the same pop-up window.

Once you've selected the downloaded file, you'll see a list of websites available in your subscription. You can then select the website you want to deploy.

For the deployment method, you need to choose 'Web Deploy' from the dropdown options. This method is suitable for deploying dynamic websites.

You can then click 'Validate Connection' to ensure everything is set up correctly. The rest of the deployment process is automatic, and you can see the progress on the screen.

Staged publishing allows you to deploy your website in stages, making it possible to create deployment slots.

You can create a separate slot for testing purposes, which is a game-changer for developers and organizations.

This feature enables you to deploy your website in a separate slot for testing, then switch to production if everything goes smoothly.

If anything goes wrong, you can simply go back to the previous version by switching the slot.

This makes deployment tasks very easy, especially for applications that don't behave well at a large scale.

This feature comes handy in situations where applications don't behave as expected, and it saves you from a lot of headaches.

Microsoft Azure Web Sites offers a range of features to help you monitor and secure your web applications.

You can perform intelligent and interactive live troubleshooting with App Service diagnostics, making it easier to identify and fix issues quickly. With Azure Monitor and Application Insights, you can view application performance and health, and gain deeper insights into your app's throughput, response time, downstream dependencies, and error trends.

Microsoft invests over $1 billion annually in cybersecurity research and development, and employs more than 3,500 security experts dedicated to data security and privacy. This means you can trust Azure to keep your web apps secure.

Here are some key monitoring and security features to keep in mind:

Built-in Monitoring is a game-changer for any app. With Azure's built-in monitoring, you can perform intelligent and interactive live troubleshooting with App Service diagnostics.

This means you can quickly identify and fix issues before they become major problems. Azure Monitor and Application Insights provide a real-time view of application resource usage, so you can make informed decisions faster.

You can also configure alerts to notify you of unexpected conditions, ensuring you're always on top of things. Application Insights gives you deeper insights into your app's throughput, response time, downstream dependencies, and error trends.

Here are some key features of Azure's built-in monitoring:

Microsoft invests more than $1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development.

This is a significant investment in ensuring the security of their systems and services. With this kind of commitment, you can trust that Microsoft is taking security seriously.

We employ more than 3,500 security experts who are dedicated to data security and privacy. This team of experts is constantly working to identify and address potential security threats.

Microsoft offers a range of plans to meet the needs of any application, from small websites to globally scaled web applications, through Azure App Service. Reserved instances offer savings of up to 55 percent compared to pay-as-you-go pricing.

You can scale your web app on an enterprise-grade service with Azure, getting high availability with a 99.95 percent uptime backed by a service-level agreement (SLA).

Automatic platform maintenance and security patching simplify operations, so you can focus on innovation.

Azure Web Application Firewall helps protect your applications, and virtual network integration connects them securely.

Deploying isolated web app instances with a single-tenancy model uses App Service Environment v3 to enforce network access external to your applications.

Azure Active Directory and other popular identity providers authenticate and authorize app access.

You can scale globally across all Azure regions.

Migrating to Azure can bring a 228 percent ROI over 3 years, with a 15-month payback period, according to a commissioned study by Forrester Consulting.

To innovate faster, you can use App Service to bring the best of Azure to your web app.

Here are some ways to improve your web app with Azure: