title: Why are some Azure-specific assemblies not present on Azure instances?
body: <p>An Azure role will likely need a set of Azure-specific .NET assemblies like <code>Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime</code> and <code>Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient</code>. Turns out the latter is <a href="http://blog.arunstephens.com/2011/01/16/microsoft-windowsazure-storageclient-is-not-actually-on-azure/" rel="nofollow">not in the GAC on Azure instances</a> and so I have to set "Copy Local" to "True" in the Visual Studio project so that it gets into the service package and deployed to Azure. If I don't do that the assembly is not there and the missing dependency will prevent my role from starting.</p>
  
  <p>This doesn't make any sense to me. Either it's just a bug or I don't get the big picture.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a good reason why the key assemblies would not be present in Azure instances GAC and I have to carry them with my service package?</p>