Windows Azure
Customer Solution Case Study
/ Browser-based coding firm moves Linux servers to Windows Azure in two days

We decided to Azure because of logical solution that does not require significant modifications to applications, and availability of datacenters throughout the world is an important factor. Also it provides the opportunity for uninterrupted growth of our services.

Vedran Jukic, Cofunder and CTO of Codeanywhere

Codeanywhere is a code editor in a browser with an integratedftp client, and all popular web formats are supported. So far it used Virtual Private server from one American hosting company with only two servers, so they were far away from real Cloud solution.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published lipanj 2013


Business Needs

Because it is a real Software as a Service (SaaS) there was no simple solution for host on standard hosting solutions so after two years and more than 10 000 satisfied customers better hosting solution was needed.

„Before moving to Microsoft Azure Codeanywhere used Liquidweb Virtual Private Server which was enough for small number of users, which we had in early stage.“, explained Vedran Jukic cofounder and CTO of Codeanywhere, „With increasing number of users we realized that we are no able to quality scale our application.“

In that time Microsoft approached Codeanywere and installed a test version of Windows Azure. After that it was no brainer what to do to stay in business and even grow larger. Another thing that was attractive was migration of Linux servers to Windows Azure as virtual servers without need for custimization.

Solution

With over 10 000 customers and services that run 24/7 main concern was to migrate to new solution in a matter of days without having to do much adjusting on new platform. Migration to Windows Azure took only two days with just two workers involved. „Even if you never worked with Cloud platform, everything on Azure is so user friendly and intuitive that there is almost no learning time for anyone“, said Ivan Baruzin cofounder and CEO of Codeanywhere.

Windows Azure has enabled a simple and fast way to put the system structure, and instead of having one large virtual server, Codeanywhere now has close to 20 specialized virtual linxservers that are mutually redundant. Best thing about migration was that linux servers didn’t need any kind of change to work under Windows Azure as virtual servers.

Benefits

Biggest benefit Codeanywhere got from migrating to Windows Azure platform was scalability, something that was needed from day one but was not achievable before migration.

With end of the last phase of migration to Azure benefits were very obvious. The system is now working as fast regardless of the load, with improved stability of the prospect that each service has two or more redundant servers that can take different function in the event of a problem or overload of system.

“Our biggest benefit is scalability, that's our main reason for a migration. We were sincerely and positively surprised by cost of migration and Azure server itself. Now I would recommend Azure to anyone regardless of how "small" their web is currently”, explained Ivan Baruzin.

Security system has also improved significantly with none of the server is directly accessible from the Internet.

“We are aware that service we provide to our customers requires quality cloud fixes. We decided for Azure because it has a logical solution that does not require significant modifications to applications, and available datacenters throughout the whole world is an important factor for our service. By moving to Azure we provide the opportunity for uninterrupted growth of Codeanywhere services”, said Vedran Jukic.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published lipanj 2013