Question

Difficulty: MediumServerless and Web Application Hosting

A financial services company is designing a serverless solution to process end-of-day transaction reconciliation files. The reconciliation process runs once daily, parses large files containing transaction records, validates the data, and writes the results to a database. The process typically takes 25 minutes to complete. The company wants to minimize administrative overhead and ensure they only pay for compute resources while the process is running. Which hosting solution should you recommend?

  1. Azure Container Apps JobsAnswer
  2. B
    Azure Functions on a Consumption plan
  3. C
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster with virtual nodes
  4. D
    Azure Virtual Machines using Spot instances

Answer

Azure Container Apps Jobs
Azure Container Apps Jobs is the ideal solution because it is designed for run-to-completion, serverless batch tasks. It supports execution times beyond the 10-minute limit of the Azure Functions Consumption plan, automatically scales to zero when not running to ensure costs are only incurred during execution, and operates with minimal administrative overhead.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the execution duration requirement of the reconciliation process.
The process takes 25 minutes to run.
Azure Functions on a Consumption plan has a strict maximum execution limit of 10 minutes, making it unsuitable for tasks exceeding this threshold.
2
Evaluate the requirement for administrative overhead and cost efficiency.
The solution must minimize administrative overhead and charge only for active execution time.
Hosting options like Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) require managing cluster control planes and upgrades, which increases operational complexity. Furthermore, standard virtual machines incur ongoing costs even when idle.
3
Compare the remaining options against the requirements.
Azure Container Apps Jobs is selected.
Azure Container Apps Jobs is designed for run-to-completion batch tasks, supports execution times extending to multiple hours, scales to zero when not running, and operates as a fully managed serverless platform with minimal administrative overhead.

Key Concept

Designing serverless hosting solutions for long-running batch workloads while minimizing cost and administrative overhead.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
Rate this question