Azure Container Apps

AZURE CONTAINER
APPS
Ken Sykora

AGENDA
Use Cases & Capabilities
Which Tool and Why?
A Simple Example
Dapr
Inter-Service Communication
Scaling
2021 Azure Container Apps 2

ABOUT MYSELF
• Software Architect, focus on scalable cloud solutions
• Software Development background (App Dev)
• Dad
• Gamer and Hobbyist
• Wisconsin Sports Fan (don’t @ me)

CONTAINER OPTIONS IN AZURE
Azure Container Instance
- Simple solution for deploying containers
with a fixed scaling need
- Does not support auto scaling or
changing scale without recreating the
service (downtime)
- Assumes ingress (must expose a port), so
it is clunky to run headless jobs
Azure App Service
- Easily launch and deploy HTTP-oriented
services in containers
- Built for HTTP based solutions
- Allows Slot deployments for Green/Blue
- Replication control (1 app instance per
node, per-site scaling options)
- Supports auto-scale based on Azure
Monitor metrics across the whole

CONTAINER OPTIONS IN AZURE
Azure Kubernetes Service
- Cluster-as-a-service
- Microsoft manages the master nodes,
worker nodes size/scale defined by you
- Tight-integration with Azure services such
as application gateway, monitor, identity,
etc.
- Auto scale options across nodes, access
to K8s based scaling options for apps
Kubernetes on VMs
- Bring-your-own-solution, run on Azure
IaaS

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Why Container Apps? Why Now?
• More capabilities than Azure Container Instance
• Less involved than Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• FAR less involved than rolling your own Kubernetes on VMs

WHY SHOULD WE CONSIDER
AZURE CONTAINER APPS?
Azure Container Apps provides turn-key microservice solutions, on-par
with a high performing Kubernetes solution, at scale, and without the
need to deal with any Kubernetes cluster management

Container Instance App Service Kubernetes Service Kubernetes on VMs
Simple
Less Flexible
Fewer Options
Complex
More Flexible
Most Options

Container Instance App Service Kubernetes Service Kubernetes on VMs
Container Apps
Simple
Less Flexible
Fewer Options
Complex
More Flexible
Most Options

AZURE CONTAINER APPS
Don’t worry about a
k8s cluster
Like Azure Container Instance, you just deploy the
containers you want. There’s no cluster to worry about.
Blue-Green by default
More options for scaling your instances out than on
Azure App Service with KEDA.
Access to
microservice
management
toolchain
Like AKS, Optional access to microservice management
toolchain Dapr.
gRPC or HTTP for internal service communication is
available.
No downtime required for any deployment or scaling
operation
Auto-scaling with
greater depth

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-apps/overview

ENVIRONMENTS
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-apps/environment

CONTAINERS
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-apps/containers

CONTAINERS
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-apps/revisions

LESS TALK
MORE CODE
(SIMPLE CONTAINER DEMO)

WHAT IS DAPR?
Service Discovery /
Service Invocation
Services register with Dapr and
become discoverable via
Dapr’s API which is available to
the container.
Services can be directly
invoked by calling the Dapr API
as a proxy to the service
State Storage
Dapr has a full arsenal of state
storage options, including Blob,
Sql Server, Redis, and many
more
Pub/Sub
Program against a pub/sub
model
https://docs.dapr.io/reference/components-
reference/supported-pubsub/
https://docs.dapr.io/reference/components-
reference/supported-state-stores/
And many other solutions…
Actors, Observability, Secret Management, Rate Limits, Authorization, others…

DAPR ON AZURE CONTAINER APPS
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-apps/microservices-dapr

LESS TALK
MORE CODE
(DAPR DEMO)

WHAT IS KEDA?
https://keda.sh/

LESS TALK
MORE CODE
(SCALING DEMO)

PRICING
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/container-apps/ as of 2 DEC 2021

THIS IS IN PREVIEW!
KEN’S WISH LIST
I need these
• Azure Monitor / Metrics
• Provisioning Diagnostics
• KEDA / Dapr diagnostics
• A little more portal observability
• Clarity on Idle pricing vs Active pricing
I guess I could live without these, for a
while
• Custom Domains / Hostname Binding
TLS / Cert Management
• Virtual Network Integration
(Private Endpoint)
• Managed Identity
• Bash / Shell Container access
It’d be sweet if I could have these
• Key Vault Integration
• Bicep definitions
• Scaling interval/cooldown access
Here’s a list of features you’ll find in other container products in
Azure, but are not yet available in Azure Container Apps

IN SUMMARY
Looks REALLY promising. Cool stuff
Love the evolution from Container Instance (ACI)
Love the middle ground approach
Not production ready just yet

THANK YOU
Ken Sykora
@kensykora on Twitter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kensykora/

Azure Container Apps

In this document