Sitecore has recently released a version which supports deploying Sitecore Experience Platform to Azure web-apps which are a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. Sitecore can also be installed on virtual machines residing in Azure’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings.
Choosing the right strategy will depend on an organization’s maturity model and the motivation to go full-on cloud computing. Below is a quick overview of the 2 flavors of Sitecore installation on Microsoft Azure that should help you decide a path for your deployment strategy.
- PaaS
- IaaS
| Sitecore on MS Azure PaaS | Sitecore on MS Azure Iaas |
| Azure Web Apps | Azure Virtual Machines |
| Deployment via Marketplace (Standard Sitecore Topology) | No Marketplace modules |
| Deployment via ARM Templates (Customize your Sitecore Topology) | No ARM Templates |
| Consumption Based License Model | Standard Licensing Model |
| Automatic Scaling via App Service Scale up, Scale out options | Automatic Scaling via virtual machine scale sets |
| Azure SQL | SQL Server installation + License (ex: On VM) |
| Azure Search | Sitecore search via SOLR or Lucene |
| Mongo DB | Mongo DB |
| Redis Cache | In-Proc, Out-Proc |
The table below goes a bit further to compare the Azure Marketplace versus ARM Templates for Sitecore on Azure PaaS
| ARM Templates | Azure Marketplace | |
| Customizable | Yes | No |
| Knowledge of Azure required | Yes | No |
| Control Azure Resources Created | Yes | No |
| Add additional services | Yes | No |
| Software Required | PowerShell | Browser |
Automatic Scaling
PaaS Vertical Scaling Example
Details: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service-web/web-sites-scale
PaaS Horizontal Scaling Example
IaaS Scaling via Virtual Machine Scale-Sets
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/virtual-machine-scale-sets-autoscale-overview
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/virtual-machine-scale-sets-windows-autoscale
Further details from Sitecore can be found at
http://www.sitecore.net/en/getting-started/deployment/sitecore-cloud
I hope the article will help you decide on an appropriate path for your deployment strategy and operations as a whole.