Microsoft Azure Functions: A Serverless Architecture
Microsoft Azure is an open, adaptable, and enterprise-grade cloud computing platform that is available to clients of all sizes. It enables you to create and distribute your applications on the Azure cloud anywhere you wish to use them.
A “serverless” approach called Azure Functions makes it possible to run lightweight application programs with the necessary infrastructure. Because Azure Functions are event-driven, your script or code can run in response to several different events. Regardless of the infrastructure settings, you can use this Azure service to code in languages like Node.js, PHP, Python, and Java. Now that a suitable platform will be made available to host your code, you can select a programming language.
On top of Azure’s PaaS architecture, Microsoft Azure Functions is an event-driven, on-demand compute service. With the addition of functionality that lets you implement your code in a variety of programming languages in response to events produced by the Azure services, it is an expansion of the WebJobs architecture.
It’s straightforward to develop your Azure Functions in any language; it’s similar to building a codebase utilizing the user-friendly browser-based UI provided by Azure and the underlying SaaS or PaaS solutions.
It works the same as utilizing any other Azure service, such as Amazon Lambda, which enables us to upload a piece of code and have it running right away. In addition, you can configure continuous Jenkins jobs and functions to execute on any triggered events, among other things. To try Microsoft Azure Functions, create a new account on the Azure Portal and create your function.
Features of Azure Functions
The following list includes some of Azure Functions’ major attributes:
A Variety of Programming Languages
When writing the code for functions, you can choose from C#, Java, Javascript, Python, and other languages. You can look at Supported languages to see the full list of languages.
On-Demand / Dynamic Pricing Model
Only the time you spent running your code is now what you must pay for. See the pricing section and create your own for a complete consumption and hosting plan.
Bring Your Own Dependencies
You can use the libraries of your choice because Microsoft Azure Functions supports NuGet and NPM.
Integrated Security
With the aid of well-known OAuth providers including Azure Active Directory, Twitter, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft Account, Microsoft Azure Functions secures its HTTP-triggered functions.
Easy and Simplified Integration
Easy access and very easy integration of SaaS and Azure services. In the section on integrations, a few instances are shown.
Flexible Development
We can use Microsoft Azure Functions directly from the site, or we can build up continuous integration and publish our code through open-source code providers like GitHub, Azure DevOps Services, and other supported development tools.
Open-Source
Microsoft Azure Functions is an open-source technology that is accessible on GitHub, just like many other programming tools.
Azure Functions Triggers
When it involves launching the execution of your code and bindings, Azure Functions
allow you to use triggers. In Azure Functions, triggers are employed to facilitate data input and output by streamlining the code. Azure Functions are utilized for numerous operations that can be done on a schedule, like processing orders or images, maintaining files, and many more things. You can use template triggers to get started with Azure Functions, each of which is for a particular scenario. A few examples are as follows:
HTTPTrigger
Code execution is triggered with the aid of an HTTP request. View create your first function for examples.
TimerTrigger
Azure Functions will execute, clear up, or carry out other operations following a specified schedule that you create. See Create a function triggered by a timer, such as a TimeTrigger.
CosmosDBTrigger
Documents are linked using Azure Cosmos DB triggers when they are added or streamlined in collections in a NoSQL database and you can see it in Azure Cosmos DB bindings for a further explanation.
BlobTrigger
For processing Azure Storage and resizing images, BlobTriggers are introduced to containers.
QueueTrigger
QueueTriggers are used to respond to messages arriving in an Azure Storage queue and you can see it in Azure Queue storage bindings or additional information on BlobTriggers.
EventGridTrigger
Responding to events provided to a subscription in Azure Event Grid uses EventGridTriggers and enables a subscription-based architecture for receiving events like filters. Creating event-based structures is a preferable option. You can see an illustration of EventGridTriggers in Automate resizing uploaded images using Event Grid.
EventHubTrigger
To react to events sent to an Azure Event Hub, EventHubTriggers are created. These triggers are employed in Internet-of-Things (IoT) settings, as well as for instrumenting applications, improving user experience, or workflow processing.
ServiceBusQueueTrigger
Your code can be connected to other Azure services using ServiceBusQueueTriggers and the message queue.
ServiceBusTopicTrigger
When you subscribe to topics, ServiceBuseTopicTrigger connects your code to other Azure services or on-premises services. See Service Bus bindings for further details.
Use Cases of Azure Functions
The following are use cases for Azure Functions:
Processing data
Incoming batches handle data processing. By ingesting a variety of formats, Azure Functions perform data filtering, cleaning, conversion, and other activities.
Integrating systems
We have a mechanism to link our code with the legacy systems thanks to Microsoft Azure Functions. Azure Functions can replace legacy apps. It accepts the user’s request and transforms it into a form that the legacy application can understand.
IoT technologies
IoT is a significant use case for Azure Functions in today’s contemporary surroundings. We can interface with IoT devices and contemporary apps more effectively thanks to Azure Functions.
Simple APIs and microservices
Microservices, which divide huge monolithic programs into discrete little function codes that are triggered by events, are another significant use case for Azure Functions. When necessary, these functions are linked to other functions.
Integrating Azure Functions
Numerous third-party services and Azure services are linked with Azure Functions. Such services act as the code’s input and output, start the execution of your function, and trigger it. The subsequent service integrations are supported by Azure Functions including:
- DB Azure Cosmos
- Event Hubs in Azure
- Event Grid Azure
- Notification Hubs for Azure
- Cloud Storage (blob, queues, and tables)
- Microsoft Service Bus (queues and topics)
- Within the same building (using Service Bus)
- Twilio (SMS messages)
Pricing and Requirements of Azure Functions
Customers of Azure Functions can choose between two different pricing tiers. Customers may pick any option that satisfies their needs, including Consumption Plan and Premium Plan.
Consumption Pricing Plan: Users are billed per second resource consumption and execution where execution time will be charged $0.000016/GB-s along with free 1 million requests per month.
Premium Plan: Azure functions premium plan offers the same capabilities as the consumption plan with enhanced performance, no cold start, and VNET access. The premium plan is billed on a number of cores per second ($0.173 vCPU/hour) and memory is allocated across instances ($0.0123 GB/hour).
How to Create an Azure Function?
Without publishing any web applications or virtual machines, Azure Functions enables you to run your code in a serverless environment. Create a free account using an Azure subscription and construct your first function after logging into the Azure portal.
Wrapping Up
Making application development quicker, simpler, and easier is the goal of the design of Azure Functions. Since the introduction of Azure Functions, we have abandoned the conventional approach to developing applications, which calls for a sophisticated IT infrastructure and needs us to work around its drawbacks of being cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming. Things were slightly improved by cloud computing, but when serverless computing was launched, the world of app development underwent a significant transformation.
We can now devote all of our attention to writing and uploading appropriate code because of Azure Functions’ serverless architecture, which has allayed our earlier concerns regarding infrastructure issues. Only the triggers and events that will run the code and control the execution of the subsequent code need to be specified. Any other user’s application, notification hubs, or other cloud services may be the source of the triggers. The Azure Functions platform replaces EventHub and WebHook and focuses on narrowly focused quick activities and also integrates with Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Mobile Apps, and Azure Service Bus services.
The freedom to write your code in the simplest online interfaces and the ability to build and debug it locally on your machines are two of Azure Functions’ most significant features. Additionally, you can utilize the same function code on several targets, like IoT Edge, Azure Stack, Cloud Service, and others.
