In the previous articles we discussed about why we chose Windows Azure over other alternatives as a scaling platform and about the database migration progress to SQL Azure. In this article we will close the series by presenting how we migrated the web portal from a local IIS to the Azure cloud.

A brief review of the previous article (part 1): We were given a “classic” web architecture: an ASP.net MVC 3 & 4 web portal, backed up by a MS SQL database with Entity Framework as a ORM. This architecture had to be prepared for scaling – ported to a system that would allow for a high number of requests to be served.

Recently we had to take a decision – our hosting solution was becoming inadequate for the performance needs of our system & our clients. He decision to take was choosing between a better dedicated server (actually a pair of servers + a load balancer) or migrating to a cloud based hosting solution. I believe other businesses are also confronted with this choice (the number of comments on this article will indicate whether I’m writing or not) so I will present:

When I founded the company (Ab Mobile Apps) one of the challenges was to ensure that all our computers were running with licensed software and we had access to adequate IDEs. This meant: Microsoft Windows, Office and programming in .net, Visual Studio. Advised by a friend who had passed through this stage, I came across Microsoft’s BizSpark, a program that addresses startups and IT professionals.

TxtFeedback is a cloud platform for customer to business interactions. The focus is on real time conversations – question and answer – the final objective being solving the issue/problem as soon as it arrived. The platform was created and financed 100% in Cluj. When we started working on TxtFeedback our main drive was enhancing the “customer experience” – what your experiencing when you are buying from a store or when registering for a service.

When you startup a startup (pun intended), the resources at your disposal: money, time, people, are limited and your challenge is to make the most out of what you have (and sometimes out of what you don’t have. You know the story: you start in your parents’ garage/apartment with 2 people and 1000 $ and in 5 years’ time you have you IPO and appear in top fortune 500.