Serverless compute for event-driven code, started by triggers such as HTTP, timer, Blob or Event Grid and hosted on a Consumption, Premium or Dedicated plan.
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In the Ultra Transcenders books
AZ-305AZ-104SC-500AI-103AZ-900AI-200
Each book explains Azure Functions in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Serverless compute
Azure Machine Learning compute provided on demand whenever a job names no compute target. No cluster needs creating or managing, and jobs do not wait in a queue behind one another.
- HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which sends data in clear text; VCF interfaces and APIs instead use HTTPS.
- BLOB
Short for binary large object: raw binary data, like pictures, audio, video or documents, that only an application can make sense of. Azure keeps these files as blobs in Blob Storage.
- Event Grid
Routes events, Key Vault SecretNearExpiry for example, by pushing them to handlers such as Azure Functions. It stores nothing and cannot receive Entra diagnostic settings.
- Consumption
Serverless, event-driven Azure Functions hosting plan charged per execution; runs are capped at 10 minutes and VNet integration isn't available.
- Premium
Hosting plan for Azure Functions that keeps instances pre-warmed to avoid cold starts and supports VNet integration. Executions time out after 30 minutes by default, which host.json can extend.
- Dedicated plan
Running Azure Functions on App Service plan instances, paying App Service rates. Instance counts change manually or through autoscale, not in response to incoming events, and enabling Always On stops non-HTTP triggers going idle.