Uses of worker roles
Worker roles can be used to perform a variety of functions. Some of the uses of worker roles include:
Processing messages contained in Queue Storage (thread-pool pattern)
Retrieving data from remote web services
Hosting non-IIS servers such as Jetty (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dachou/archive/2010/03/21/run-java-with-jetty-in-windows-azure.aspx), PHP (http://blog.maartenballiauw.be/post/2010/04/08/Running-PHP-on-Windows-Azure.aspx), and other web servers (http://blog.smarx.com/posts/using-other-web-servers-on-windows-azure)
Serving as the TCP endpoint for FTP services (http://blog.maartenballiauw.be/post/2010/03/15/Using-FTP-to-access-Windows-Azure-Blob-Storage.aspx)
Mounting an Azure CloudDrive VHD
Accessing files on a CloudDrive VHD
Although worker roles can be used to host web servers for non-.NET languages, they can only be developed in .NET languages.
The uses of worker roles are limited only by the collective imagination of the Azure ecosystem. Microsoft has opened an Azure...
