I'm a .NET developer that would like to set up a single small Azure VM to host a web service that will provide data for a smartphone app.
One of the requirements is that the VM must be able to regularly receive some text based data provided by a third party service who will forward the data to an IP address and port on the VM. I don't need a virtual network or anything, and I know how to set up the endpoint, but I need to be able to supply the third party vendor with an outside IP address for the VM that won't change (static or reserved).
Is this possible with a small Azure VM? Once set up, does an Azure VM keep its outside IP address?
Thanks.