Chapter 10. When the BLOB stands alone

Although BLOB storage is generally used as a durable storage area for web and worker roles, it can also be used as a standalone service; you can use the service for your applications without hosting a worker or web role.

So far in this book we’ve focused on using web roles to host websites. Now we’re going to tell you how you can use BLOB storage to host a static HTML website without needing a web role.

10.1. Hosting static HTML websites

You learned in chapter 9 that BLOBs held in a public container are accessible to the outside via a public URI over an HTTP connection. Those files can be accessed with standard web browsers such as Internet Explorer. BLOB storage also lets you configure the MIME types associated with contained files; the web browser can correctly handle the served content. These capabilities make BLOB storage not just a networked hard disk but rather a full-fledged web server farm (as shown in figure 10.1).

10.2. Hosting Silverlight applications in BLOB storage

10.3. Using BLOB storage as a media server

10.4. Content delivery networks

10.5. Summary