How to deploy an application to the cloud

To deploy an application to windows azure cloud you need first to open an account.

In the portal https://windows.azure.com you have to create two types of accounts:
1. A storage account – For azure storage
2. A Hosted Services account – For hosting applications

For detailed step by step explanation I encourage you to go through the Lab "IntroductionToWindowsAzure" provided in the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit.

Visual studio provides an easy configuration panel for your application.

Just click properties on your selected role and start configuring…

As you can see certificates can also be uploaded. You can use them in configuring SSL. You can configure the store name and location so certificate chains can be created. Peer Trust is not possible though. More on that on later posts.