New at Build 2022
The Azure App Service team has been busy cooking up a smörgåsbord of features in time for Build 2022. Ever since App Service supported HTTP/2, developers have been looking forward to gRPC support and we are delighted to introduce the upcoming preview of gRPC on App Service at Build 2022. Azure App Service is also announcing a preview of the full end-to-end migration experience in Azure Migrate that enables Windows .NET developers to seamlessly migrate their ASP.NET applications into Azure App Service. Just prior to Build 2022, Azure App Service enabled virtual network integration and private endpoints for Windows and Linux customers running on the Basic pricing tier. Additionally, we recently published a new Landing Zone Accelerator with architecture guidance and Infrastructure as Code templates for setting up a secure application topology on Azure App Service.
Build 2022 Session Content
For folks (virtually) attending Build 2022, there is handy info below on a number of sessions where Azure App Service topics will be covered!
Building modern applications across hybrid and multicloud environments
Tuesday, May 24
02:30 PM - 03:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Session Link (Note: This is a live Roundtable session)
Modernize and Scale Enterprise Java Applications
Wednesday, May 25
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Ask the Experts: Modernize and Scale Enterprise Java Applications
Wednesday, May 25
11:00 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Session Link (Note: This is a live Ask the Experts session)
Migrate ASP.NET Apps to Azure App Service using Azure Migrate
Tuesday, May 24
On Demand
Session Link
Announcing gRPC support on Azure App Service
Over the last few months Azure App Service has been upgrading the platform’s worldwide HTTP reverse proxy layer to leverage YARP and Kestrel. As an outgrowth of that work, gRPC is available in early preview for customers on the Linux variant of Azure App Service. gRPC is a is a language agnostic, high-performance Remote Procedure Call (RPC) framework that can run in any environment. Developers can use .NET (Node and Python coming in the future) on Azure App Service to author gRPC servers that provide RPC-over-HTTP/2 semantics with low latency and high performance. Azure App Service supports the following gRPC request/response models: unary calls, server streaming, client streaming, and bi-directional streaming. More details around creating applications that use gRPC on Linux App Service as well as examples of gRPC in action are available at this link.
In the future, we also plan to add the ability for all developers to fine-tune an application’s supported TLS cipher suites, building upon the YARP + Kestrel adoption. Keep an eye out on Azure Updates for updates on TLS customizations and gRPC support!
Can My Application Get There from Here?
You have an ASP.NET application happily clucking along on a virtual machine somewhere, and you wish you could hoist it up to Azure and realize immediate benefits, such as easy access to scaling, automatic patching for Windows OS and .NET Framework, and SLA backed uptime commitment. But you wish you had some help to be more efficient in the application migration process. Well, look no further because Azure App Service has fully integrated into the Azure Migrate experience. Customers can bulk Discover web applications running in their existing infrastructure, bulk Assess the readiness of discovered web applications for migration into Azure App Service, and then bulk Migrate multiple web applications into Azure App Service, all from within the guided Azure Migrate experience.
This will not only help you save time and budget during the application modernization process, but also help you take advantage of the experience and proven practices of your peers. Check out the examples and walkthroughs of the new migration experience in this video session! The new bulk web application migration experience in Azure Migrate is expected to be available starting later this quarter. [Update (06/29/2022): The public preview is now available! Try out the new experience with the Tutorial: Migrate ASP.NET web apps to Azure App Service with Azure Migrate]
Secure Networking for Every Application
Virtual networks are a core component for securing both inbound and outbound application traffic. We are excited to announce that Azure App Service virtual networking features are now available to secure applications starting with the Basic pricing tier. With the recent update to the service, customers can now use regional virtual network integration to secure outbound application traffic and private endpoints to secure inbound application traffic with applications running on Basic tier.
Additionally, Azure App Service has added virtual network configuration to the Azure Portal’s Create Web Application flow. This change makes it easier for developers to incorporate virtual networking as a fundamental part of application security into their application topologies. The screenshot below shows both private endpoints (securing inbound network traffic) and regional virtual network integration (securing outbound network traffic) being set up as part of creating a new web application:
The next time you are in the Azure Portal, take a peek and try out the new integrated virtual network + Create Web Application experience.
Enterprise Architecture Guidance with Landing Zones
Azure Landing Zones are architectural guides and supporting Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates that help customers design and deploy enterprise Azure environments. We are pleased to announce that Azure has recently released a Landing Zone Accelerator for Azure App Service. The accelerator provides extensive architectural guidance and recommendations around identity and access management, virtual network design, security configuration, operations management/automation, and cloud governance when deploying applications using App Service Environment v3 (ASEv3). The Landing Zone not only provides guidance, but also includes an open-source reference implementation (using Azure Bicep templates) for a hypothetical line of business application. Give the new Landing Zone Accelerator a try, and feedback is always welcome.
More ASEv3 and Networking Morsels
Speaking of App Service Environment v3 (ASEv3), we continue to make it easier for customers to migrate from ASEv1/v2 infrastructure to take advantage of the more powerful compute options, easier virtual network integration and reserved instance pricing. Azure App Service now supports deploying applications via FTP on ASEv3. In future, the platform will also add support for custom domain suffixes. Also, remember that new regions supporting ASEv3 migration are periodically being added, so check back often for updates. Finally, keep an eye out in the coming weeks for a native Linux Hybrid Connections Manager which will provide a new option for Linux developers to setup secure connectivity to on-premises resources. An example of the new native Linux Hybrid Connection Manage is shown below:
Updates to Azure Arc-enabled PaaS Services
The team has been busy delivering new features and enhancements to the Arc-enabled preview of Azure App Service, Azure Functions, and Logic Apps. Over the last few releases, the team has added support for .NET 6.0, and more recently has added support for Azure Functions v4, bringing the latest and greatest Azure Functions framework to Arc.
One of the unique differentiators of the Arc-enabled preview is that it supports many of the same code-to-cloud deployment options that are available with the public version of App Service. Since a single Arc-enabled cluster hosts multiple applications, this means multiple builds may need to run concurrently within the scope of a cluster. The team has implemented numerous changes to the intrinsic build system to support parallel builds and simultaneous application deployments thus increasing overall application deployment velocity.
As language features have been added to the Arc-enabled services, “codeless” integration support with Application Insights for .NET, Node.js and Java developers has also been incorporated. This brings the same ease-of-use for application monitoring to Arc-enabled services that developers have today when running in Azure.
Because Arc-enabled scenarios include requirements from both developer and infrastructure operators, there have been several platform improvements to provide additional control over Arc-enabled services. IP access restrictions for individual applications are now supported, enabling fine grained control over inbound network access. And for outbound application access, customers can explicitly route network traffic through an outbound network proxy, thus ensuring all outbound application traffic flows via an explicit IP address selected by a K8s cluster operator. All in all, it has been a busy few months for the team - stay tuned in the future for more updates to Arc-enabled PaaS services!
The Promise of Summer Brings with it New Language Features
At Build 2022 customers have probably heard the latest about .NET 7, so you might be asking, where is it on Azure App Service roadmap? We have good news! .NET 7 has been incrementally deploying behind the scenes on Azure App Service. Stay tuned for official announcements on .NET 7 availability on Azure App Service by keeping an eye on Azure Updates.
As a quick recap, for Java developers, Azure App Service recently released Java 17 and Tomcat 10.0 for both Windows and Linux. Since the team periodically fields questions around websockets support, the team also recently authored a number of new examples showing how developers can use websockets across Azure App Service. Check out the new How-to samples over on GitHub covering Python + Django, Node.js and .NET.
In other news, Azure App Service now supports the ability to access content hosted on Azure Files shares for Windows source-code based applications. This “bring your own storage” (aka BYOS) capability enables Windows source-code applications to leverage Azure Files shares for scenarios such as storing video and image files, and sharing content across multiple applications running across different services. For example developers can now share file content across both Windows and Linux applications running on Azure App Service! This new feature also works with Azure Files shares hosted behind private endpoints in a virtual network. It is currently available in public preview.
Last year, Azure App Service began adding new supportability features for Linux App Service starting with .NET. The service has subsequently rolled out updates for both Node.js and Python that can take memory dumps and collect CPU profiles. The service is working on wrapping this functionality with automated self-service tools for collecting and analyzing these artifacts, so stay tuned for additional updates.
There has also been a great deal of investment in Wordpress running on PHP 8.0 and Linux App Service. Developers might have seen a blog post earlier this year about a new optimized Wordpress experience on Linux App Service. In addition to the caching and performance benefits that were introduced, the team has recently added CDN caching as an option during the initial creation of a Wordpress site:
In future, Azure App service will add virtual network support, making it straightforward to create a new Wordpress site fully integrated into your virtual network infrastructure.
Next steps
Managed application platforms-as-a-service (PaaS) such as Azure App Service enables customers to get immediate value from modernizing existing applications to the cloud, without the overhead of maintaining infrastructure, with minimal code changes, and increased developer velocity. Join the discussion in Azure Discussion Forum and bookmark the Apps on Azure blog for the latest updates.
If you are new to Azure PaaS, build your first web app using one of our QuickStart guides. As always please share your feedback and comments below. And keep up to date by following the latest from Azure App Service on Azure Updates.