What is App Service?

• Microsoft’s ‘platform as a service’ hosting option in the Azure cloud
• A fully managed platform for building, deploying and scaling your web apps
• Azure App Service is a fully managed web hosting service for building web apps, mobile back ends and RESTful APIs
• Azure App Service is an HTTP-based service for hosting cloud applications (web applications, REST APIs etc.)
• App service runs on top of Azure service fabric
• App service + app service plan == hosting as a service
• The word app refers to the hosting resources dedicated to running a workload
• Details: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/overview

Types

There are several app service types. Each one geared towards specific purposes:

• Web apps
• API apps
• Mobile apps (backend for mobile apps)
• Functions

WebJobs:

• WebJobs are background services (like windows service application)
• WebJobs runs in the same App service of WebApp or API (does not requires seperate App Service but you can run WebJobs in a dedicated App Service)
• Details: What is WebJob?

Supported languages

Azure App Service supports Multiple languages and frameworks. Applications deployed to App Service can be developed using following languages:

• .Net languages i.e. C#
• Java
• Ruby
• JavaScript (Node.js)
• PHP
• Python
• … (more in future?)

Why to use?

• Managed environment: Spend time writing great apps and let Azure worry about the platform
• SLA 99.95%
• Custom domains (Azure managed domain registration and DNS or third party i.e. Namecheap)
• Deployment slots
• DevOps integration (CI/CD pipelines)
• Auto scaling
• Authentication / Authorization
• Traffic Management
• Access on-premises data (Hybrid data connection)
• Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code integration
• Multiple languages and frameworks
• Containerization and Docker support
• Restrict access to IP addresses
• SSL certificates