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Azure Functions

Introduction

  • Azure Functions is a serverless compute service that allows you to run event-driven code without provisioning or managing infrastructure.
  • It supports multiple programming languages and integrates seamlessly with other Azure services.

Triggers and Bindings

Triggers:

  • Triggers cause a function to run.
  • A trigger defines how a function is invoked and a function must have exactly one trigger.
  • Triggers have associated data, which is often provided as the payload of the function.
  • Common Types:
    1. HTTP Trigger
    2. Time Trigger
    3. Blob Storage Trigger
    4. Queue Trigger

Bindings:

  • Binding to a function is a way of declaratively connecting another resource to the function; bindings may be connected as input bindings, output bindings, or both.
  • Data from bindings is provided to the function as parameters.
  • Binding Types:
    1. Input Binding
    2. Output Binding

Pricing Plans

ConsumptionPremium PlanApp Service
Billing:
a. Number of Executions
b. Executino Time
c. Memory Used
d. Free Quota per month
Billing:
a. Number of Core Seconds
b. Memory Used
c. Pre-warmed instances
Billing:
a. Pay for App Service resources
Use Case:
a. Apps requires scaling
b. Intermittent traffic
Use Case:
a. Apps that run continously
b. Apps require more time
Use Case:
a. Existing under-utilized VM’s
b. Custom images to run functions

Azure Function Benefits

  1. Simplified Programming Model
    • Easily run small pieces of code in clooud.
    • Eliminate bolier plate code
  2. Choice of Language
    • Use it to run code in different programming languages
  3. Pay-per-use Pricing Model
    • Only pay for the time the code runs
  4. Bring Your Own Dependencies
    • NPM, NuGet and other package managers
  5. Scales Automatically
    • Parallel invocation to meet demand
  6. Open Source Code
  7. Docker Runtime
    • Run function runtime in docker on premise or in other clouds
  8. Serverless
  9. Low Cost Prototyping
    • Quickly creates prototypes at low cost

Programming Language Support

  • Below are the supported lanaguages in Azure Functions:
    1. C#
    2. JavaScript
    3. F#
    4. Java
    5. Powershell
    6. Python
    7. TypeScript

Azure Function Authorization Levels

  1. Anonymous
    • No Key required.
    • Function can be called by anyone on the internet.
  2. Function
    • Function or host key is required.
    • Function is scoped to a specific function.
    • Host key is scoped to all the functions within function app.
  3. Admin
    • Master Key required.
    • Provides admin level privileges.
    • Should not be shared or used in client applications.

Use Cases

  1. API creation
    • Quick secure API creation with HTTP triggers.
  2. Serverless Mobile and Web Backend
    • API, Databases, Queues, etc.
  3. Real Time Stream Processing
    • Analysis of telemetry data from cloud applications
  4. IoT Data Processing
    • Analysis of IOT stream data
  5. ETL
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