We have a server solution written entirely in unmanaged Visual C++. It contains complicated methods for really heavy data processing.
The whole thing contains millions lines of code, so rewritning it all in some other language is not an option. We could write some extra code or make isolated changes, but rewriting everything is out of the question.
Now we’d like to put it on a cloud. Which platform do we choose – Amazon EC2 or Windows Azure – and why?
Does it require Administrative rights on the box (e.g. writing to registry, changing box configuration, installing components, etc)? If it does, you can’t use Windows Azure today.
If it doesn’t require admin privileges then the other things you need to think about are:
That would hopefully give you some more datapoints to help you make a decision.