How to migrate an external, static website to Azure?

Question

We have a static website built using a wix-like tool: [www.TakeAStance.com]. What is the best way to migrate it to Azure?

Answer 1

@Reg ,

Firstly, Just to provide you a good understanding on hosting website on Azure. The term compute refers to the hosting model for the resources that your application runs on.

As a starting point reference ( it's for all websites), you may take a look at the criteria and flow chart (Decision tree for Azure compute services), weigh the platform strengths based on your organizational requirement and then chose the best platform.

Azure offers several ways to host websites: Azure App Service WebApps (PAAS solution), Virtual Machines (IAAS), Azure Static WebApps, Service Fabric and Static website hosting in Azure Storage. You can leverage the service that best suits your requirement.

1. Azure Storage allows you to serve static content like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images from a $web storage container. This setup supports serverless architectures, including Azure Functions and other PaaS services, eliminating the need for a web server.

However, static websites on Azure have certain limitations. For instance, header configuration is only possible through Azure CDN, not directly within the static website feature. Also, authentication and authorization (AuthN and AuthZ) aren’t supported.

2.If these (above) features are crucial for your use case, Azure Static Web Apps is a viable alternative. It supports header configuration, AuthN, and AuthZ. Plus, it offers a fully managed CI/CD workflow from GitHub to global deployment.

3.For scenarios requiring a web server to render content, Azure App Service is recommended.

Migration:

Azure Storage migration overview -This article focuses on storage migrations to Azure and provides guidance on the following storage migration scenarios.

For more specific product migration scenarios, you can refer to the Cloud Adoption Framework.

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Answer 2

@Reg , Adding more info:

At high-level, here are the board steps to migrate your website to Azure Storage (Static website hosting in Azure Storage):

1. Create an Azure Storage account: Go to the Azure portal and create a new Storage account. Choose a unique name for your account and select the appropriate subscription, resource group, and location.

Enable Static Website feature: Once your Storage account is created, go to the "Static website" blade and enable the feature. You will need to specify the index document name and the error document path.

1. Upload your website files: Use an Azure Storage Explorer tool or Azure CLI to upload your website files to the $web container in your Storage account. Make sure to include the index document and the error document.
2. Configure DNS: Once your website files are uploaded, you need to configure DNS to point to your Azure Storage account. You can use a custom domain or a subdomain of web.core.windows.net.

Test your website: Once DNS is configured, you can test your website by visiting the URL of your Azure Storage account.