Book Image

Mastering Azure Serverless Computing

By : Lorenzo Barbieri, Massimo Bonanni
Book Image

Mastering Azure Serverless Computing

By: Lorenzo Barbieri, Massimo Bonanni

Overview of this book

Application development has evolved from traditional monolithic app development to using serverless options and microservices. This book is designed to guide you through using Microsoft's Azure Functions to process data, integrate systems, and build simple APIs and microservices. You will discover how to apply serverless computing to speed up deployment and reduce downtime. You'll also explore Azure Functions, including its core functionalities and essential tools, along with understanding how to debug and even customize Azure Functions. In addition to this, the book will take you through how you can effectively implement DevOps and automation in your working environment. Toward the concluding chapters, you'll cover some quick tips, troubleshooting techniques, and real-world serverless use cases that will help you make the most of serverless computing. By the end of this book, you will have gained the skills you need to develop and deliver cost-effective Azure serverless solutions.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Azure Functions 2.0 Fundamentals
5
Section 2: Azure Functions 2.0 Deployment and Automation
10
Section 3: Serverless Orchestration, API Management, and Event Processing
15
Section 4: Real-World Serverless Use Cases

What are Durable Functions?

In the previous chapters, you saw how Azure Functions work and what you can do with them. The first thing that comes to your mind when you think about what you cannot do with Azure Functions is that you cannot call a function from another function. In other words, you cannot orchestrate a sequence of function calls inside an Azure Function.

Fortunately, if you need to do something like this, you can use Durable Functions.

Durable Functions is an extension of Azure Functions that allows you to orchestrate functions and implement complex scenarios.

Some of the possible scenarios are as follows:

  • Chain: In this scenario, you need to call a set of functions in an exact order and pass the result of one of them to the next one:

You can implement a similar scenario using an external service (for example, a storage queue), one for each call, to place the...