Windows Azure ASP.NET site with forms authentication

ASP.NET sites can come in all sizes, from the biggest ones in large enterprises to smaller ones in small businesses. With small businesses moving into the cloud, forms authentication appears attractive and universal as it is less restrictive than Windows authentication, not restricted to Windows environment, and less expensive than passport authentication.

With the authentication credentials stored in SQL Azure, the standard ASP.NET Membership/Role Provider can be used for authenticating users accessing the ASP.NET websites. Please review the following link if you are not conversant with the SQL Server membership provider concepts. Please review this link for ASP.NET membership provider: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yh26yfzy.aspx. It may be mentioned that for on-site ASP.NET website authentication with ASP.NET Membership/Role Provider, the Membership information is stored in SQL Server Express (or SQL Server). A discussion of...