Question

Difficulty: MediumServerless and Web Application Hosting

A logistics company is designing a serverless infrastructure solution for two application workloads:

* A REST API for package tracking that must scale out rapidly to handle sudden spikes in traffic, integrate with an Azure Virtual Network (VNet), and avoid cold-start latency.
* An event-driven invoice processing job that extracts metadata from uploaded documents using OCR. This job can take up to 20 minutes to complete.

You need to recommend the compute services that satisfy these requirements while minimizing operational overhead.

Which two Azure compute solutions should you recommend? (Select TWO.)

  1. Azure Functions on the Premium plan for the REST APIAnswer
  2. Azure Container Apps Jobs for the invoice processing jobAnswer
  3. C
    Azure Functions on the Consumption plan for the invoice processing job
  4. D
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for the REST API

Answer

Azure Functions on the Premium plan for the REST API and Azure Container Apps Jobs for the invoice processing job.
The REST API requires rapid scaling, VNet integration, and no cold starts, which are all key features provided by the Azure Functions Premium plan. The invoice processing job runs for up to 20 minutes, which exceeds the timeout limits of the Consumption plan. Azure Container Apps Jobs is the ideal serverless choice for this run-to-completion, event-driven task, as it supports execution runtimes of up to several hours without VM management overhead.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the requirements for the REST API component, including virtual network integration, rapid scaling, and cold-start avoidance.
Identify that Azure Functions Premium plan supports pre-warmed instances to avoid cold starts and provides VNet integration.
This meets all requirements for the API while keeping operational overhead low.
2
Evaluate the execution duration constraints for the event-driven invoice processing job.
Identify that the job runs up to 20 minutes, which exceeds the 10-minute maximum limit of Azure Functions on a Consumption plan.
A plan or service supporting longer runtimes, such as Azure Container Apps Jobs, is required to prevent timeout failures.
3
Minimize administrative overhead by selecting serverless options over fully managed Kubernetes clusters.
Determine that AKS is overly complex for these workloads, whereas Azure Functions Premium and Azure Container Apps Jobs are serverless and low-maintenance.
Designing for low operational overhead is a core requirement of the scenario.

Key Concept

Selecting appropriate serverless hosting plans based on execution limits, virtual network integration, latency profiles, and operational complexity.
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