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Microsoft has announced static web hosting on Azure Storage. Earlier this year, the software giant launched a preview version of the service, which is now being rolled out to all Azure cloud regions.

A static website is completely composed of unchanged files, only HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This is in contrast to dynamic sites, which generate the content of a page on-the-fly, such as the website you are currently reading.

Static sites are easier to host, and this is now also possible on Azure. According to Microsoft, the solution is much cheaper than traditional hosting plans, as only the standard storage and access costs for Azure Storage have to be paid. That’s about 50 cents a month with 1 GB of storage and 10 GB of data transfer.

Azure Blob Storage

The simplicity of hosting a static site lies in the minimum number of resources required. Azure Blob Storage container is all it takes to get a web app with only a frontend online.

Within the Azure portal, the new Static website option has been added to the container settings screen. Static site hosting is activated with just one click of the mouse. From then on, the website can be uploaded using existing Azure storage management apps. It is also possible to do this directly from Visual Studio Code.

After completion of the upload, the site is immediately visible on the domain displayed in the Azure portal. Own domains can also be linked.

Light workflows

According to Microsoft, the solution is designed for relatively light workflows, which means that there are not many customisation options. However, it would be possible to set a standard 404-fouthandler, as well as a standard document name. The Azure CDN service provides the ability to configure rewrite rules for more advanced site routing.

Microsoft therefore states that static web hosting from Azure offers a solution for developers and administrators who only have online apps with minimal hosting requirements. With this new hosting service of static sites, the software giant can now compete with Googles Cloud Platform and Firebase, among others.

Related: Microsoft test Azure Availability Zone in the Netherlands

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.