Microsoft introduced the Flexible Consumption Plan for Azure Functions at the annual Build conference. This new hosting plan utilizes a serverless consumption-based billing model, offering users enhanced flexibility and customization options without compromising on existing features. Users can create serverless functions with this plan to achieve higher performance, reliability, security, and scalability based on their requirements.
Thiago Almeida, part of the Azure Functions engineering team, highlights that the Flex Consumption Plan is built on a feature host optimized for scale, a new backend infrastructure called Legion, and an updated version of the internal escalation service. It is currently available in preview in 12 regions, supporting various programming languages and technologies.
The Flex Consumption Plan provides users with diverse scaling capabilities, including multiple instance memory options, per-instance concurrency control, per-role scaling, “always ready” instances, and the ability to scale up to 1,000 instances per application. Additionally, users can securely access virtual networks (VNet) to protect their function apps and share subnets across multiple applications with no extra cost. Other features include Azure Load Testing integration, platform logs, metrics, and traces.
Furthermore, Miroslav Janeski, a technical director, emphasizes in a blog post that the Flexible Consumption of Azure Functions represents a significant advancement in serverless computing by addressing long-standing challenges while maintaining cost-effectiveness and scalability benefits. Cloud-native applications can benefit from innovations like these to achieve further advancements in the future.
The Flex Consumption Plan operates on a consumption-based pricing model, where charges are incurred for on-demand instances during function execution and optional “Always Ready” instances. The plan also includes a free monthly allowance of 250,000 requests and 100,000 GB of resource consumption per subscription.
Overall, the introduction of the Flexible Consumption Plan for Azure Functions marks a milestone in serverless computing, offering users enhanced flexibility, customization, scalability, and security options. With its diverse scaling capabilities and networking features, users can create robust and high-performing serverless functions tailored to their specific needs. The plan’s consumption-based pricing model and free monthly allowance further enhance its cost-effectiveness for users.
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https://www.infoq.com/news/2024/05/azure-functions-flex-consumption/
