Serverless

Serverless computing is the execution environment where the environment is set up and managed for you (and NOT by you).

• Serverless doesn’t mean that there’s no server for execution. It means there’re servers, but you are not managing them.
• Your application is running on someone else’s server.
• It is a PaaS (Platform as a Service) offering.

There are a few serverless computing products from Azure. Let’s go into detail and then you can decide on which product is best for you.

Azure Functions

• It is called function because the idea is that a single function completes your one or single task.
• No server, no other application, no system, no infrastructure only a single function.
• It is the most fundamental thing in computing, and Azure Functions will run your functions millions of times a minute or second if necessary.

Logic Apps

• Logic apps are a way to create and run automated workflows connecting different apps, data, systems, services.
• A Logic App can schedule, automate, and arrange tasks, business processes, and workflows.
• No coding is needed.
  • Some Examples:
    • Schedule email notifications every Saturday or any day of the week, month, or year.
    • Monitor tweets, create alerts.
    • Upload a file to SharePoint.
    • Run REST-API methods and more…

Event Grid

• Event: In computing terms, it is when an application or process wants the world (being other connected applications) to know that something happened.
  • An event can be data insert, SMS arrival, Payment made, placing an order through an application, etc...
• Refer to the figure below to understand the Event Grid requirement.
  • Due to Application 1, an event was raised.
  • Now after this event is raised, if we need to call another application or service or function then how do those applications (in figure - Application 2, Application 3, Application 4) know that Application 1 has raised an event?
  • That is what Event Grid is for.

• Back to Event Grid:
  • Think of it as a big network of connections to any service that wants it.
  • You can connect most Azure products to it, and when they're connected, events are sent to Event Grid from which connected services can receive the events (Refer to the figure below).
  
  • Event Grid is a routing service for connected applications, making sure events are sent and received fast and accurately.
  • It's a serverless service because you don't manage any infrastructure.
  • Event Grid makes setting up complex architecture of interconnected disparate services a lot simpler.