Migration to Windows Azure – Analysis and Comparison

Cloud computing turned utility computing into a reality. Organizations may currently pay only for what they use, in computing power or storage capacity, as well as in electricity or other utilities. This enables a reduction of the investment in IT and leads to the more efficient use of datacenters, while allowing organizations to focus on the IT services they need to hire. To be able to fully benefit from the advantages of the cloud computing, organizations need to migrate their current applications to the cloud. After a brief introduction to cloud computing and to the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, this paper analyzes the migration of an on-premises web application, used on a secondary vocational school, to the cloud. It then compares the application's performance when deployed to a traditional Windows server versus its deployment to Windows Azure.