Introduction
With Azure Functions, you can rapidly build HTTP APIs for your web apps without the headache of web frameworks. Azure Functions is serverless, so you're only charged when an HTTP endpoint is called. When the endpoints aren't being used, you aren't being charged. These two factors combined make serverless platforms like Azure Functions an ideal choice for APIs where you experience unexpected spikes in traffic.
Pretend for a moment, if you will, that you work for a large online hardware retailer called Tailwind Traders.
Tailwind Traders is a global corporation with a massive online retail operation. You also have brick-and-mortar stores in just about every major city in the world. One of your most critical tasks is keeping up with the inventory of products that you carry.
Logistics specialists need to manage the inventory from all over the globe. You never know when the buying mood will strike, so customer demand can dramatically increase and decrease without warning. When that happens, the inventory management tool's usage spikes. Thousands of inventory managers also use the tool to keep up with demand. Your mission is to create an HTTP API that a lightweight web front end can consume. The whole app needs to be fast and global. It also needs to scale up automatically when traffic unexpectedly spikes without costing a fortune when traffic is low.