Microsoft Azure App Service is a ready-to-use out of the box complete website service solution. It provides all the necessary features you need to get your web applications up and running, from website creation to website hosting.
Deploying a web application using App Service is very easy and fast compared with setting up an application hosted on an on-premises or cloud based web server. App Service is a PaaS service, which means that it is not necessary to worry about various hardware and configuration issues. Your App Service provider is also responsible for handling constant backups and upgrades. App Service is a fully managed environment. Your software, middleware, and hardware is automatically patched and updated, and constantly maintained. This means you can focus on improving and maintaining your application and data.
Since App Service is a PaaS platform, you can use any popular framework or programming language for your application. App Service provides support for:
- .NET
- Java
- Ruby
- Node.js
- PHP
- Python
Microsoft Azure App Service also offers developers access to a large collection of ready-made templates based on the frameworks and programming languages it supports.
Microsoft Azure App Service is a very cost-effective solution for small and medium businesses since it offers very flexible pricing plans - you only pay for the infrastructure and services that you use. In addition, App Service provides you with built-in load balancers that make sure you only utilize the infrastructure you need, further reducing costs. Depending on your plan configurations, you can get memory, disk space, dedicated virtual machines, domains and certificates, and more according to your enterprise’s needs.
App Service has excellent scaling options. It can automatically scale out the number of running instances of your app and automatically assign all the infrastructure necessary to easily manage incoming HTTP requests. When incoming traffic slows down, it will automatically scale in your application by reducing the number of running instances and unused infrastructure. There is also an option for users to manage their own scaling if they prefer to do so.
Azure App Service has a wide variety of security modules. You can implement your own authentication and authorization solution, or allow App Service to handle it for you instead. The authentication and authorization feature can handle web requests before passing them along to your application, and it also prevents unauthorized requests from accessing your application. All App Service apps come with a free SSL/TLS certificate, providing you with built-in encryption for your apps. Using the App Service whitelisting options, you can also set up your web application to be publicly accessible, or it can also be accessible from specific IP addresses. If you decide to use this product, you will have peace of mind knowing that your site is up and running without any security risks.
Here are some of the main features and benefits of using App Service:
- No maintenance necessary: App Service takes care of setup, maintenance, upgrades, patches, and backups while constantly ensuring that everything is running smoothly in the background, freeing up your time to focus on other tasks.
- Quick and easy deployment: Applications on Azure App Service can easily be up and running with just a few mouse clicks.
- Automatic scaling: Automatically autoscale your app out to use additional infrastructure and bandwidth on demand and automatically scale your app down when demand decreases. At all times, you are only charged for the services that you use.
- Flexible pricing plans: App Service offers pay-as-you-go pricing, which is very cost-effective for small businesses. App Service employs built-in load balancers to make sure you only use and pay for the infrastructure you need.
- Ready-made application templates: Azure Marketplace offers out-of-the-box complete App Service templates, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal applications. These applications are installed using a simple online wizard.
- Security and compliance: App Service offers comprehensive security measures, such as multi-factor authentication for application access. Users can be verified with Microsoft or third-party providers, such as Azure Active Directory, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. In addition, App Service is ISO, SOC, and PCI compliant.
- Analytics and insights: App Service provides a comprehensive picture of your application’s performance and health so you can make the necessary decisions for your business. You will also receive insights into your app’s response times, memory usage, and program errors.
- Virtual machine and container support: App Service applications can run on virtual machines or containers as well as on physical machines.
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Multiple deployment slots: App Service offers multiple deployment environments that can be used for development, staging, and production. It is easy to move code between these environments for testing and updating purposes.
- Flexible integration options: App Service can easily be integrated with external applications. This will allow you to access many types of external platforms for monitoring or debugging purposes. For example, with the App Service IDE integration, you can integrate with Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code for deploying and debugging App Service apps. App service can also integrate with Azure Active Directory, Google, GitHub, BitBucket, and more.
It is important to note that since Azure App Service is a PaaS platform, there are some limitations. For example, access to the infrastructure is limited so there isn’t access to the server in case you want to set up monitoring or view logs.
