Learn
about
Microsoft’s
WordPress
on
Azure
App
Service,
as
well
as
an
interesting
alternative
from
WP
Engine.
Hugo
Baeta
Twenty
years
old
this
year,
WordPress
remains
one
of
the
most
popular
content
management
tools.
Running
a
WordPress
instance
requires
a
web
server
and
a
database,
an
ideal
combination
for
moving
to
a
virtual
infrastructure
running
in
the
cloud,
either
using
platform
services
or
bringing
your
own
infrastructure.
Bringing
your
own
WordPress
installation
to
Azure
still
requires
managing
and
patching
the
underlying
OS
and
the
CMS
application,
as
you’re
treating
Azure
as
just
another
host
for
virtual
machines.
Yes,
it’s
an
approach
that
simplifies
lifting
and
shifting
existing
services
from
on-premises
or
from
traditional
hosting
providers,
but
you’re
not
really
getting
the
benefits
that
come
with
using
a
hyperscale
cloud
platform.
Jump
to:
Finding
WordPress
for
Azure
If
you
take
a
look
at
the
Azure
Marketplace,
you’ll
see
many
options
for
running
WordPress,
from
basic
installs
to
complete
managed
environments,
including
customized
versions.
There
are
many
choices,
and
it
can
be
difficult
to
pick
an
option
—
especially
when
many
offer
similar
features
at
similar
prices.
WordPress
is,
at
heart,
a
Hypertext
Preprocessor
(PHP)
application,
and
you
should
remember
that
the
only
supported
PHP
on
Azure
is
the
one
running
on
Azure
App
Service
for
Linux.
If
you’re
running
your
own
or
a
third-party
WordPress
on
Azure,
you
should
ensure
that
it’s
either
running
on
Azure
App
Service
or
that
your
WordPress
vendor
is
providing
PHP
support
for
you.
Microsoft
now
has
its
own
managed
WordPress
One
option
is
Microsoft’s
own
offering,WordPress
on
Azure
App
Service.
This
is
a
managed
WordPress,
running
on
the
familiar
Azure
App
Service
and
using
Microsoft’s
MySQL
flexible
server
service
for
your
content
and
data.
Microsoft
has
tuned
its
WordPress
installation
for
Azure,
building
on
App
Service’s
Linux
hosting
option.
It’s
also
an
open-source
project
with
the
tools
needed
to
configure
and
create
an
instance
hosted
on
GitHub.
The
project’s
GitHub
repository
contains
links
to
documentation
showing
the
default
settings
and
providing
details
on
what
you
can
change.
As
the
service
is
managed,
Microsoft
handles
security
patching
for
you,
ensuring
that
your
Content
Management
System
(CMS)
is
up
to
date
and
reducing
the
risks
associated
with
running
WordPress.
There’s
no
need
to
schedule
maintenance,
as
Microsoft
will
spin
up
a
new
instance,
connect
it
to
your
content
storage
and
database
and
then
switch
away
from
the
old
instance.
Using
WordPress
on
Azure
App
Service
Microsoft
built
its
WordPress
solution
to
take
advantage
of
Azure
best
practices.
The
WordPress
application
runs
in
a
separate
virtual
network
from
the
database
and
backup
storage,
using
a
local
Redis
cache
to
speed
up
content
delivery.
The
whole
service
sits
behind
an
Azure
Front
Door
security
appliance,
with
static
content
served
from
Azure
Blob
storage.
Usefully,
Front
Door
is
configured
to
work
with
the
Azure
Content
Delivery
Network,
so
that
static
content
is
cached
near
the
edge
of
the
network,
with
endpoints
in
many
more
places
than
there
are
Azure
regions.
Billing
is
based
on
standard
Azure
App
Service
rates,
and
Microsoft
provides
guidelines
on
the
hosting
plans
required
for
expected
usage,
from
a
single
standard
instance
handling
120
requests
per
second
to
six
production
instances
delivering
21,000
requests
per
second.
You’ll
also
need
to
factor
in
the
costs
of
storage,
as
Azure’s
Managed
MySQL
bills
separately
for
compute
and
storage.
As
well
as
running
in
the
Azure
public
cloud,
there’s
support
for
its
U.S.
government
cloud,
allowing
public
bodies
to
use
Azure
to
host
their
web
content.
Microsoft
provides
guidelines
on
how
to
migrate
content
from
existing
sites
to
a
managed
Azure
instance,
using
a
common
migration
plugin.
The
free
version
of
the
All-in-One
WP
Migration
tool
works
well
for
smaller
sites,
with
up
to
256MB
of
content.
If
you
have
more,
use
the
premium
version.
As
there’s
an
upload
limit
for
WordPress
on
Azure
App
Service,
you’ll
need
to
add
a
configuration
setting
to
App
Service
that
lifts
the
limit
from
50MB
to
256MB.
Alternatively,
you
can
use
File
Transfer
Protocol
(FTP)
to
manually
upload
content
from
your
original
site
to
Azure,
importing
the
SQL
data
using
the
PHP
control
panel.
Large
sites
may
need
to
use
several
SQL
exports.
Scalable
WordPress
with
WP
Engine
on
Azure
Kubernetes
Service
An
interesting
alternative
comes
from
managed
WordPress
provider
WP
Engine
with
its
recently
announced
Azure
offering.
Currently
used
to
run
Microsoft’s
own
Stories
news
site,
WP
Engine’s
platform
has
allowed
Microsoft
to
build
out
its
own
content
platform,
one
that
became
increasingly
important
during
the
peak
of
the
COVID-19
pandemic.
The
two
companies
collaborated
on
a
way
to
make
the
platform
more
scalable,
integrating
it
with
Azure’s
own
managed
Azure
Kubernetes
Service
(AKS)
platform.
That
tooling
is
now
available
for
the
rest
of
us,
with
WP
Engine’s
tools
ported
to
run
inside
containers
and
running
across
multiple
Azure
regions,
scaling
with
local
demand.
This
improves
security
by
ensuring
isolation
between
WordPress
and
any
other
code.
AKS
will
automatically
add
new
worker
nodes
as
required,
with
Azure’s
networking
services
providing
web
application
firewalls
and
global
routing
to
those
new
containers.
It’s
an
option
that
shows
the
benefits
of
taking
a
cloud-native
approach
to
more
than
your
own
code.
Containerized
WordPress
can
be
managed
with
Azure
Arc
and
will
run
on
local
AKS
via
Azure
Stack
HCI
and
other
edge
technologies.
That
means
you
aren’t
limited
to
working
on
Azure;
you
can
take
advantage
of
using
it
to
manage
WordPress
anywhere
you
have
an
Arc-managed
Azure
environment.
Benefits
of
mixing
cloud
isolation
and
a
Platform
as
a
Service
approach
for
WordPress
Managing
WordPress
takes
time
and
resources,
with
many
unmanaged
installs
resulting
in
increased
security
risks
for
their
hosts.
Moving
it
to
isolated
cloud
instances
reduces
the
risks
to
your
networks,
especially
if
you’re
using
WordPress
for
public-facing
services.
Mixing
cloud
isolation
with
a
Platform
as
a
Service
(PaaS)
approach
should
result
in
a
faster
and
safer
way
to
deliver
content
—
especially
when
you
add
a
global
content
delivery
platform.
Read
next:
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Complete
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Azure
Certification
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Bundle
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Academy)
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