Introduction
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service that is used for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications. It provides software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
Azure Functions is a solution that runs on the Microsoft Azure platform and is used to run small pieces of code, or functions, in the cloud. With Azure Functions, you can focus on a specific function without having to focus on the whole application or the infrastructure to run it. Additionally, Azure Functions lets you run your code in a serverless environment without having to first create a virtual machine or publish a web application.
When you write Azure functions, you can use your development language of choice, such as C#, F#, Node.js, or PHP.
Azure Functions is a great solution for processing data, integrating systems, working with the Internet of Things (IoT), and building simple APIs and microservices. Tasks like image or order processing, file maintenance, or any task that you want to run on a schedule are suitable for Azure Functions.
Because Microsoft Azure is a service, you have to pay for it. Azure Functions has two types of pricing plans:
Consumption plan - Microsoft Azure provides all the necessary computational resources. Therefore, you don't need to concentrate on resource management, and you only pay for the time that your code runs.
App service plan - With the app service plan, you can run your functions as you do other web and API applications on Azure. If you are already using app services for other applications, you can run Azure Functions on the same plan without additional costs.