Today I played around with my WordPress. There were some things I wanted to try without risking my blog. I decided to create a new WordPress just for testing. This was a good opportunity to test out once more Microsoft Azure.
Windows Azure offers a lot of great services: Virtual Machines, Web Sites, Mobile Services, etc. There are different Purchase Options. I am using “Pay as you Go” this allows me not only to test Windows Azure but also to use some of their services for free.
Microsoft offers up to 10 web sites for free with up to 5GB of storage:
Creating a WordPress instance within Microsoft Azure is really easy, we have just to create a new web site using the WordPress template:
( If you want a complete and detailed guide Microsoft has already a great one: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/web-sites-php-web-site-gallery/ )
If you just want to know briefly the needed steps:
1. Create an account in Windows Azure.
2. Open Windows Azure portal and click “New” at the bottom left corner.
3. Select Web site > From Gallery.
3. Select the WordPress app from the list of Blogs.
4. Enter the URL of your website and some administration details and you are done!
It takes 5 minutes (if you are already register 
) to create a WordPress instance in Azure, here I can play around with things like e-Commerce Plugins.
My testing WordPress –> http://juancarlos.azurewebsites.net/
References:
Juan Carlos Sánchez's Blog 