Azure Functions provide a simple way to deploy code in a scalable, cost-effective way.

The beauty of Azure functions is that the developer does not need to worry about where they are deployed. Azure takes care of spinning up a server and other resources at the appropriate time and scaling out a Function as demand increases. The infrastructure is abstracted away from the developer allowing the developer to focus on the code and the business problem.

Azure functions can be written in C#, F#, JavaScript, or Java.

Each Function has a "Trigger" which, as the name implies is an event that causes the function code to run. This can be an HTTP request, a message on a queue or message bus, delivery of an email, data inserted into a blob storage container or CosmosDB database, or a timed interval.

Triggers are just one way that Azure functions can easily connect to other services. There are also bindings available to interact with databases, queues, and other services with a minimum of code.

One nice feature of Azure Function Apps is the "Consumption Plan" pricing model. Selecting this plan means that you are only charged while your function is running, which can save plenty of money - particularly if your app is not running 24 hours a day every day. Of course, you can also choose to run your function as part of an App Service Plan, in which case you will pay for the entire time the function is available, whether or not it is running. This may be desirable if you already have an App Service Plan running and want to include your functions in that same plan.

You can create functions directly in the Azure Portal. Or you can create them locally using tools like Visual Studio and Visual Code and deploy them either directly from the IDE or through your continuous integration processes.

The source code for the Azure Functions run-time is even open source! Check out the code at https://github.com/Azure/azure-functions-host.

You can get a free Azure account at http://azure.com. You can read more about Azure functions at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions.

In upcoming articles, I'll show you how to create, deploy, test, and manage Azure functions.