Since a windows azure virtual machine can be fully managed, I suppose deploying applications (console apps, web apps, web api's, ...) can be deployed as if it was your on-prem server?

Thanks.

Hi,

With 99.95% monthly SLA for multiple instances, Virtual Machines are ready to extend on-premises workloads to the cloud.  Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint Server, BizTalk Server, and many more server applications are validated to run on Virtual Machines. From my experience, we also can deploy our web apps, console apps, etc.. to azure vm.

See more at: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/virtual-machines/

Best Regards