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Gwyneth Peña-Siguenza
Gwyneth Peña-Siguenza

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An intro to Azure Durable Functions

Durable Functions is an extension built on top of the Azure Functions platform and it gives you the ability to define how multiple individual functions can be orchestrated to work together in a workflow.

The extension takes care of:

  • Scalability
  • Maintains execution position of the workflow
  • Workflow state storage

Some use cases are:

  • Chained functions.
  • Fan out, fan in.
  • Human interaction.
  • Async HTTP APIs

I explain a bit more and provide a simple example of how to get started with durable functions in this video.

I plan on creating more content around Azure; it's great to share what I've been learning.

If you have ANY feedback at all, please let me know in the comments below or reach out to me on socials.

Thanks for reading and possibly watching!

Top comments (6)

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mgreenbergsa profile image
mgreenberg-sa

Durable Functions are sort of a combination of AWS Step Functions and AWS Event Bridge to me. I think the orchestration of Durable Functions is easier to me and one big advantage is you have DF maintain state, they are more reliable than Logic Apps to me. But function chaining Lambdas is more straight forward in AWS. I like using both though they bridge a huge gap in serverless. Great Intro Gwenyth !

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madebygps profile image
Gwyneth Peña-Siguenza

I have to take a look at lambda, as an Azure user, I wonder how simple it would be for me to understand lambda, thank you for the insight!

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mgreenbergsa profile image
mgreenberg-sa

I don't think it would be hard for you to pick up at all. I come from working in an AWS environment to Azure. It wasn't hard for me to pick up at all. The paradigm is different for sure, but once you get used to it, its not so bad. It also depends on your language of choice. I try to use Node JS when I can simply because of the execution time. But honestly it depends what you are trying to accomplish, with timer functions C# script has never caused a problem. If you have Lambda questions feel free to reach out

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andrewbrown profile image
Andrew Brown 🇨🇦

So for those coming from the AWS world. The equivalence here in AWS is Step Functions.

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madebygps profile image
Gwyneth Peña-Siguenza

Awesome! I've been wanting to look at AWS offerings, I'll have to take a look at step functions.

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andrewbrown profile image
Andrew Brown 🇨🇦 • Edited

Uncertain the difference myself since I have yet to give Azure Durable Functions a spin 🙃