CODEWITHSUNDEEP
azure
user1447414
user1447414

Reputation: 1486

Microsoft Azure setup advice

I need to create a number of APIs to be consumed by a Web Interface and mobile devices.

A use case would be:"The user needs to be able to upload a number zip files with the Web interface, and then each of the mobile users should be able to select what zip file to download on demand"

-Whould I need a virtual machine in order to create the APIs? -Would I need the mobile services? -Would I need the cloud services? -Would I need a combination of the previous?

As a requirement it also needs to be scalable so depending of the traffic/number of users, my platform would shrink up and down.

My starting point for this question was:

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/calculator/

So what should I set up?

Thanks

Upvotes: 0

Views: 45

Answers (1)

Gaurav Mantri
Gaurav Mantri

Reputation: 136196

Based on your requirement, I would recommend using Azure Websites for your web interface requirement instead of making use of a Virtual Machine. You could start very easily and can scale up if needed. For mobile devices, you can certainly look into mobile services however if all your mobile users would be using it to select and download the files, you can create a simple Web API solution and host it again in an Azure Website.

Now some recommendations:

  • For storing files, please use Blob Storage. It is meant for that purpose only.
  • For uploading, you can have your users directly upload the files into your blob storage account instead of having an architecture where files are first uploaded to your web server and then transferred to blob storage from there. For that you would need to make use of CORS and Shared Access Signatures. This will improve the overall performance of your application.
  • For downloading, again you can make use of Shared Access Signature. You will present your users a list of files that they can download. When the user selects a file for downloading, at that time you can request a shared access signature for that file from your API and then mobile client can directly download the file using that Shared Access Signature.

I wrote some blog posts that you may find useful:

CORS/SAS/Uploading Large Files: http://gauravmantri.com/2013/12/01/windows-azure-storage-and-cors-lets-have-some-fun/

Understanding Shared Access Signature: http://gauravmantri.com/2013/02/13/revisiting-windows-azure-shared-access-signature/

Upvotes: 1

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