WinForms App + MS SQL Server DB migrate to Azure platform

Question

I'm totally newbie in Azure techs. I'm finding the optimal way to migrate WinForms App (.NET 4.5) that interacts with Database managed by SQL Server 2012 to Windows Azure platform. For now DB and application deployed on single machine.

WinForms application interacts very much with DB, when it's in active work phase. Tons of transactions about 3 hours a day. This proccesses are automated and running on schedule. ("worker part"). It also has UI for administrator to manage some of DB data. There will be also clients that make a queries to that DB from their desktop client apps.

DB already successfully migrated to Azure SQL DB. Now I wonder: what should I do with my WinForms app? For example I can deploy it on Virtual Machine created in Azure without changes, but a think it's far from optimal way. Maybe I should create a kind of Cloud Service from a active "worker part" of my WinForms app, and migrate UI management part to Web interface somehow.

One of main goals for me is to deploy "worker part" of app as "close" as possible to Azure SQL DB(maybe even like it deployed on single machine with DB), bacause of perfomance issues (much work with DB), and, as i get it, Microsoft will take a lot of money if transactions between "worker part" and DB will look like outer transactions to DB. Maybe there's a way to avoid it, and pay only for client apps queries?

What ways can I choose?

Sorry my bad english, some things are difficult to formulate for me.

Answer 1

When porting a Windows Forms application to Azure, you can:

1. Rewrite the GUI with the web role. Web role are web applications.

2. Move the back end code into worker role. Worker role are back end processes without GUI, which are doing some tasks(for example: image processing, update database, etc). This should be the "worker part" of app