Share Point 2010 and Windows Azure
I have seen lots of requests and interest to host SharePoint 2010 in Windows Azure so I deiced to write some information on this regard which can help everyone. As of now, SharePoint 2010 cannot be hosted as business solution on Windows Azure and it is not a supported product for Windows Azure.
After the release of Windows Azure VM Role BETA there was a big interest to install Share Point 2010 in VM Role and host within Windows Azure. The current VM Role infrastructure is not technically capable to handle SharePoint requirement i.e. proper integration with SQL Azure and high availability due to the fact that VM Role is stateless and if VM Role goes down, you will lose of all of your data. So for research perspective you sure can run Share Point 2010 on Windows Azure however can u use this solution as business offering, I will raise questions on it’s viability. If you go further and try to move your data in Cloud Drive and use VM Role then you can run only one instance as Cloud Drives can connect to only one instance with Read/Write access. In theory to demonstrate SharePoint 2010 can run on Windows Azure VM Role however this will be a conceptual or demonstration of the technology, not as Share Point 2010 as business application.
In future there may be more announcements on this regard however we do not have any timeline to tell when and how SharePint2010 will be supported on Windows Azure.
Because of it, Share Point 2010 and if you decide to use Share Points 2010 on Windows Azure as following backup server, these are also not supported on Windows Azure as of now:
· Hot standby: A second data center that can provide availability within seconds or minutes.
· Warm standby: A second data center that can provide availability within minutes or hours.
· Cold standby: A second data center that can provide availability within hours or days.
[Update - 05/11/2011]
Windows Azure team have created a dedicated page which can give more information on Windows Azure + Sharepoint scenarios.
Please visit the link : Windows Azure and SharePoint Scenarios.
You can also download "Sharepoint and Windows Azure Primer" from the link below:
This kit provides a primer on how to get started developing applications that integrate SharePoint and Windows Azure.