Now Create Static Websites with Microsoft Azure Storage

Microsoft Azure recently made static websites Generally Available on Azure Storage. Previously static websites on Azure were available in preview mode.

Static websites generally serve a set of files that are not frequently changed generally crafted using plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. These are helpful where developers or administrators need front-end only apps. e.g. Web apps written is Angular or React that further interact with other cloud services but serve only as a frontend with no processing on their own. Another common use case of a static website is building a serverless application in the cloud and creating a front end for it using a static website.

Azure storage will help host static website. When a static website is enabled on Azure storage account then it will create $web container where all static content can be uploaded. The endpoint to access your static website is then made available with the default page.

The announcement, Program Manager, Sercan Guler, said, "One scenario where you might use static website hosting is to build a website to interact with your data in Azure Storage. You can secure your data by protecting your files via RBAC roles and Azure Active Directory authentication, and manipulate the data using the Azure JavaScript SDKs. This example uses the new Azure Storage SDK for JS to list files in Blob storage and render in a file browser in a statically hosted website. The example uses anonymous authentication to interact with Azure Blob storage, but you can also use Azure AD authentication to restrict access to your data."

On the pricing front, charges for storing and accessing data will apply along with data egress charges (bandwidth). Microsoft with the help of Azure Static Website can now compete with existing cloud vendors such as Amazon's AWS and Google’s Cloud Platform.