I will build a company website for a family business (Callow & Co.) using HTML for my project. The cloud-based provider I am using to run this website is Microsoft Azure, which hosts an Ubuntu virtual machine (VM). I have chosen to use Microsoft Azure over other cloud-based providers for several reasons. Primarily, the $150 worth of credits we receive as Murdoch students is a big attraction; however, having used Amazon EC2 to build and run VMs for coursework earlier in the semester, I find the Microsoft Azure interface much more intuitive and responsive, finding admin tasks such as adding or removing network rules much simpler and quicker.
The Ubuntu VM hosts Apache2, which is my chosen HTTP server, due to my familiarity with it and the fact that it is open-source and free to download and use. The same applies to my SSL/TLS certificate service, Certbot by Let’s Encrypt. Enabling this service for my website allows HTTPS connection, making access to the website much more secure for both the host and the user. This software automates certificate issuance and renewal, checking twice daily that the default 90-day certificate is still valid, at which time it issues a new one.
To obtain and manage my domain name, I have used namecheap.com, as it’s a cheap, reliable, and easy-to-use service, with IP changes to my domain name being effective within an hour.
In this project, I aim to build a reliable, low-maintenance website tailored to the needs of a small business whilst also deepening technical knowledge, becoming more comfortable operating cloud-based Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) programs, Linux command line, network management and HTML.
I have chosen to apply a strict yet standard ‘All rights reserved’ License for this project. As this is a business website, I do not want others to be able to reuse the images, name, or any other material found here without my explicit permission, including the HTML code. Allowing others to use business imagery and allow creative access will also enable them to impersonate the business, vandalize the website, or damage the company and its reputation without recourse.
© 2025 Callow and Co. All rights reserved.