Azure App Service is meant to be a single product, that has capabilities for whatever you need, mobile, web or api. But in practice, it is a family of several services, that each bring something unique to the table.
Currently, the Azure App Service platform contains these services:
- Web Apps
- For running web and api applications in Azure
- Mobile Apps
- For running the backend for mobile applications in Azure
- Function Apps
- For running small blocks of code in Azure that can be triggered by outside sources, like a message on a queue
About Azure App Services
In 2012, Microsoft added Azure Web Sites to its Azure services portfolio. This service was created specifically for people that wanted to run web applications in Azure. This service was very popular but missed specific features for other developers that were creating mobile applications and APIs. So Mobile Services was added for the mobile app developers. And after that both services were renamed to Web Apps and Mobile Apps.
As developers requested even more specific features, Microsoft added API Apps (for running APIs) and Logic Apps (for running workflows) to the service offering. As all these services were related, Microsoft added them into one big family of services, called Azure App Service. Later, in 2016, Function Apps were added to App Service. Also, Logic Apps were removed from the App Service family, as Microsoft rebranded Logic Apps to be the go-to service for doing integration and workflow tasks (think BizTalk) in Azure.
Benefits:
Azure App Service is a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS) offering for developers. Here are some key features of App Service:
- Multiple languages and frameworks – App Service has first-class support for ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, Java, Ruby, Node.js, PHP, or Python. You can also run PowerShell and other scripts or executables as background services.
- Managed production environment – App Service automatically patches and maintains the OS and language frameworks for you. Spend time writing great apps and let Azure worry about the platform.
- Containerization and Docker – Dockerize your app and host a custom Windows or Linux container in App Service. Run multi-container apps with Docker Compose. Migrate your Docker skills directly to App Service.
- DevOps optimization – Set up continuous integration and deployment with Azure DevOps, GitHub, BitBucket, Docker Hub, or Azure Container Registry. Promote updates through test and staging environments. Manage your apps in App Service by using Azure PowerShell or the cross-platform command-line interface (CLI).
- Global scale with high availability – Scale up or out manually or automatically. Host your apps anywhere in Microsoft’s global datacenter infrastructure, and the App Service SLA promises high availability.
- Connections to SaaS platforms and on-premises data – Choose from more than 50 connectors for enterprise systems (such as SAP), SaaS services (such as Salesforce), and internet services (such as Facebook). Access on-premises data using Hybrid Connections and Azure Virtual Networks.
- Security and compliance – App Service is ISO, SOC, and PCI compliant. Authenticate users with Azure Active Directory, Google, Facebook, Twitter, or Microsoft account. Create IP address restrictions and manage service identities.
- Application templates – Choose from an extensive list of application templates in the Azure Marketplace, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
- Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code integration – Dedicated tools in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code streamline the work of creating, deploying, and debugging.
- API and mobile features – App Service provides turn-key CORS support for RESTful API scenarios, and simplifies mobile app scenarios by enabling authentication, offline data sync, push notifications, and more.
- Serverless code – Run a code snippet or script on-demand without having to explicitly provision or manage infrastructure, and pay only for the compute time your code actually uses (see Azure Functions).
Limits:
- App Service on Linux is not supported on Shared pricing tier.
- The Azure portal shows only features that currently work for Linux apps. As features are enabled, they’re activated on the portal.
- When deployed to built-in images, your code and content are allocated a storage volume for web content, backed by Azure Storage. The disk latency of this volume is higher and more variable than the latency of the container filesystem. Apps that require heavy read-only access to content files may benefit from the custom container option, which places files in the container filesystem instead of on the content volume.
Also check: https://foxutech.com/azure-database-for-postgresql-flexible-server-and-features/
