Simon Timms on Azure Functions and Processes - Episode 23

Simon Timms is a long-time freelance Software Engineer, multi-time Microsoft MVP co-host of ASP.NET Monsters on Channel 9, and also runs the Function Junction Youtube channel. He considers himself a generalist with a history of working in a diverse range of industries. He's personally interested in A.I., DevOps, and microservices; and skilled in Software as a Service (SaaS), .NET Framework, Continuous Integration, C#, and JavaScript. He's also written two books with Packt Publishing: Social Data Visualization with HTML5 and JavaScript and Mastering JavaScript Design Patterns.

In this week's episode, Simon and Jeffrey will be discussing Azure Functions and running processes in Azure. Simon explains how the internal model of Azure Functions works, the difference between Azure Functions and Durable Functions, the benefits and barriers to Azure Functions, and much, much more.

Topics of Discussion:

[:43] About today's episode.

[1:13] Simon's career in software engineering and the high-points in his journey.

[3:11] Simon gives a rundown of the options available for running backend jobs when targeting the Azure datacenter.

[4:23] How is Azure Functions different from Webjobs?

[7:47] How would you make the decision to run your web application or website using Azure Web Apps or App Service Plan versus Azure Functions with the consumption model?

[10:01] Simon dives deeper into how Azure Functions works.

[12:23] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast's sponsor: Clear Measure.

[12:48] Can you use Azure Functions for things that people traditionally had running as Azure Services or a scheduled task?

[13:54] About Microsoft's new framework, Durable Functions.

[15:33] Is Durable Functions ready? When should people be adopting it?

[17:02] How Window queue-based services translate into Azure Functions.

[18:29] How the internal model of Azure Functions works.

[20:02] Azure Functions vs. Durable Functions.

[21:44] How long-running business transactions look with Durable Functions.

[24:30] What the testing environment and process looks like on Durable Functions.

[26:26] Simon outlines some of the application types and scenarios you can do in Azure Functions.

[28:28] Places where Azure Functions are not really good.

[30:03] Are there any barriers to portability to going back-and-forth between hosting your job as a web job, versus hosting it as an Azure Function.

[32:02] When would Simon go for Azure Batch instead of Azure Functions?

[36:54] What Simon recommends listeners follow-up on!

Mentioned in this Episode:

Azure DevOps

Clear Measure (Sponsor)

Function Junction Youtube Channel

Simon Timms (Blog)

ASP.NET Monsters

Social Data Visualization with HTML5 and JavaScript, by Simon Timms

Mastering JavaScript Design Patterns, by Simons Timms
Azure App Service
Data Factory

Azure Functions

Azure Web Apps

Troy Hunt

Have I Been Pwned?

Microsoft Durable Functions

The official Twitter account for Azure Functions

Eduardo Laureano's Twitter

Jeff Hollan's Twitter

Mikhail Shilkov's Twitter

Want to Learn More?

Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.