Using Windows Azure In Europe and the middel East

Question

I've built my application in .net and SQL Server 2008.
Having looking for a hosting solution I stumbled upon windows azure.
I saw that currently its only available in the US.
Can I use the service if I live outside of the US?
If I upload my website up there and people try entering, will people from outside of the US be blocked?

Sorry for posting an unrelated program question. I am not receiving an answer anywhere else, and I can see that there are several questions regarding azure which are not program related here.

Answer 1

We have an Azure hosted application in the US. One of our developers is in Pakistan. He has no issues developing against our Azure Table Storage there or using the application. Also, he is impressed with the overall speed of the application compared to other web applications he uses which are hosted locally and in the US.

Obviously an app hosted in the same region would be quicker all things being equal. However, we have been really happy with the "quality" of the service from Azure and overall it probably offers better performance even outside the region than a poorly managed shared hosting environment. Also, you can change the region where your Azure app is hosted. So, over time, as new regions are added you can migrate your app to that region.

Answer 2

Nope it won't be blocked. But, it would be more sluggish due to latency compared to the locally hosted applications. Also, if you are in EU you might want to check the data protection act. It is illegal to store some private data concerning EU citizens on the US based servers.

Answer 3

Windows Azure has a data center hosted in northern europe. Your users won't be blocked no matter where it is hosted. See this link for status and locations.