Azure Containers Explained: Leverage Azure container technologies for effective application migration and deployment

✍ Scribed by Wesley Haakman, Richard Hooper

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 279
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Apply scenario-based learning to effectively handle the technical and business impact of various services like AKS, ACI, Azure Functions, and Azure Container Apps on Azure

Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Key Features:

• Understand the what, why, and how of different container technologies available on Microsoft Azure
• Explore the practical implementation of various Azure container technologies with the help of use cases
• Learn common business strategies for selecting the right Azure container technology at optimized cost

Book Description:

Whether you're working with a start-up or an enterprise, making decisions related to using different container technologies on Azure has a notable impact your app migration and modernization strategies. This is where companies face challenges, while choosing the right solutions and deciding when to move on to the next technology. Azure Containers Explained helps you make the right architectural choices for your solutions and get well-versed with the migration path to other platforms using practical examples.

You'll begin with a recap of containers as technology and where you can store them within Azure. Next, you'll explore the different Microsoft Azure container technologies and understand how each platform, namely Azure Container Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Container Instances (ACI), Azure Functions, and Azure App Services, work - you'll learn to implement them by grasping their respective characteristics and use cases. Finally, you'll build upon your own container solution on Azure using best practices from real-world examples and successfully transform your business from a start-up to a full-fledged enterprise.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to effectively cater to your business and application needs by selecting and modernizing your apps using various Microsoft Azure container services.

What You Will Learn:

• Make the best-suited architectural choices to meet your business and application needs
• Understand the migration paths between different Azure Container services
• Deploy containerized applications on Azure to multiple technologies
• Know when to use Azure Container Apps versus Azure Kubernetes Service
• Find out how to add features to an AKS cluster
• Investigate the containers on Azure Web apps and Functions apps
• Discover ways to improve your current architecture without starting again
• Explore the financial implications of using Azure container services

Who this book is for:

This book is for cloud and DevOps architects, application developers, technical leaders, decision makers, and IT professionals working with Microsoft Azure and cloud native technologies, especially containers. Reasonable knowledge of containers and a solid understanding of Microsoft Azure will help you grasp the concepts in this book.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title page
Copyright and credits
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Part 1: Understanding Azure Container Technologies
Chapter 1: Azure Containers – Pleased to Meet You
Understanding containers and their benefits
Container characteristics
Container benefits
Getting to know containers in the Azure landscape
Exploring technologies and use cases
Azure App Service for containers
Azure Functions for containers
Azure Container Instances
Azure Container Apps
Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Container Registry
Summary
Chapter 2: Azure App Service – Running a Container Was Never That Difficult
Understanding Azure App Service for Containers
Deploying containers to Azure App Service
Seeing it in action
The pros and cons of deploying containers on Azure App Service
Pros
Cons
Summary
Chapter 3: Deploying Containers to Azure Functions
Understanding Azure Functions for containers
Deploying containers to Azure Functions
Docker containers for Azure Functions
Pros and cons of deploying containers to Azure Functions
Pros
Cons
Summary
Chapter 4: Azure Container Instances for Serverless Containers
Understanding ACI
Container groups
Networking
Bursting from Azure Kubernetes Service
Deploying containers in ACI
ACI and YAML
The pros and cons of running containers on ACI
Pros
Cons
Summary
Chapter 5: Azure Container Apps for Serverless Kubernetes
Understanding Azure Container Apps
Environments
Revisions
Containers
Deploying containers to Azure Container Apps
Pros and cons of running containers on Azure Container Apps
Pros
Cons
Summary
Chapter 6: Azure Kubernetes Service for Kubernetes in the Cloud
Understanding how AKS works
Control plane
Nodes and node pools
Versioning
Deploying containers to AKS
The pros and cons of running containers on AKS
Pros
Cons
Summary
Part 2: Choosing and Applying the Right Technology
Chapter 7: The Single Container Use Case
Scenarios and types of solutions
Building a new solution – starting small
You’re migrating to a container-based infrastructure
You are extending your current solution to use a container
Selecting the right Microsoft Azure technology
Security
Runtime
State
Usage and scalability
Decisions, decisions, decisions
Decisions and the future of your solution
There are plans to develop another API
The roadmap dictates Azure App Service is the way to go
The roadmap dictates everything will run in containers
Summary
Chapter 8: Deciding the Best Fitting Azure Technologies for Multiple Containers
Multiple container scenarios and their solutions
Migration of the tightly coupled solution
Decoupling a solution
The Windows and Linux mix
Deploying the right Microsoft Azure technologies
Tightly coupled
Loosely coupled
Summary
Chapter 9: Container Technologies for Startups
A common start-up scenario and solution design
Choosing the right technology
Visualizing a design
Deploying and implementing the solution
Deploying the resource group and networking
Deploying the customer's container app environment
Deploying and testing the containers
Learnings and future decisions
Summary
Chapter 10: Container Technologies for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Cloud Adventures web shop – scenario and design
Choosing the right technology
Visualizing a design
Deploying and implementing the solution
Creating the AKS cluster
Isolating customers
Setting up Ingress
Deploying the application
Configuring Azure Front Door
Testing the websites
Learnings and future decisions
Summary
Chapter 11: Container Technologies for Enterprises
Cloud Adventures webshop – scenario and design
The new requirements
Visualizing a design
Deploying and implementing the solution
Enabling Azure Monitor/Container insights
Enabling a managed identity
Enabling Azure AD authentication and RBAC
Enabling the Key Vault Container Storage Interface
Learnings and future decisions
Summary
Part 3: Migrating Between Technologies and Beyond
Chapter 12: Migrating Between Container Technologies
Revisiting technologies
Azure App Services
Azure Container Instances
Azure Container Apps
Azure Kubernetes Service
Investigating use cases for migrating between technologies
Customer requirements and features
Money, money, money
Deprecation
New technologies
Allocating time for innovation
Exploring migration paths
Azure App Services to “anything”
ACI to Azure Container Apps
Azure Container Apps to AKS
AKS
Summary
Chapter 13: Azure Container Instances –I Like the Scalability But I Need More
ACI and the use case
The constraints of ACI
Motivations for migrating to a different technology
The next technology
Translating features from ACI to ACA
ACI configuration for the original use case
ACA configuration for an extended use case
Summary
Chapter 14: Beyond Azure Container Apps
ACA and its use case
Constraints of ACA
Motivations for migrating to a different technology
The next technology
AKS configuration
Basic knowledge requirements
Translating the features from ACA to AKS
ACA configuration for the original use case
Azure Kubernetes configuration for an extended use case
Summary
Chapter 15: Azure Kubernetes Service – The Next Steps
AKS and our use case
Scalable deployments
Creating a Helm chart
Deploying the Helm chart
Automatic scaling
Scaling the nodes
Scaling Pods
Windows containers on AKS
Use cases
Summary
Chapter 16: What’s Next – Diving into Future Trends and More
Future trends
Machine learning and AI
Cloud-native development
Multi-cloud
GitOps
Security
Azure Red Hat OpenShift
The future of AKS
eBPF
Fleet
Draft v2
Wasm
Azure and Kubernetes certifications
AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
Certified Kubernetes Application Developer
Certified Kubernetes Administrator
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator
Summary
Index
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