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Difficulty: MediumServerless and Web Application Hosting

An agricultural technology startup is designing a serverless architecture to host two workloads:

1. A public API for farmers that experiences highly variable traffic, scaling from zero to thousands of concurrent requests, with a target response time under 200200 ms.
2. A background data analysis job that runs once daily to generate complex crop yield models. This job takes between 1515 to 2525 minutes to complete.

The startup requires a solution that minimizes both operational overhead and cost.

Which two Azure hosting services should you recommend?

  1. Azure Functions on a Consumption plan to host the public APIAnswer
  2. Azure Container Apps Jobs to run the daily background data analysis jobAnswer
  3. C
    Azure Functions on a Consumption plan to run the daily background data analysis job
  4. D
    Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to host both the API and the background analysis job
  5. E
    Spot Virtual Machines in a Virtual Machine Scale Set to host the public API

Answer

Azure Functions on a Consumption plan to host the public API, and Azure Container Apps Jobs to run the daily background data analysis job.
The correct recommendation is to host the public API on Azure Functions (Consumption plan) and the background job on Azure Container Apps Jobs. Azure Functions Consumption plan is cost-effective and highly responsive for light, bursty API request patterns. Azure Container Apps Jobs allows containerized tasks to run on-demand for up to multiple hours without timeout issues, fulfilling the requirement for the 1515-to-2525 minute process while remaining fully serverless with minimal administrative overhead.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the API workload requirements.
The API requires rapid scaling from zero, low latency (under 200200 ms), and minimal cost. A serverless compute model like Azure Functions on a Consumption plan fits perfectly.
Azure Functions on the Consumption plan scales dynamically and charges only for execution time, aligning with variable API workloads.
2
Analyze the background job requirements.
The background job runs daily for 1515 to 2525 minutes. Standard serverless options like Azure Functions Consumption plan will timeout (max 1010 minutes limit).
An alternative serverless processing service that supports longer executions without infrastructure overhead is required, pointing to Azure Container Apps Jobs.
3
Evaluate operational overhead and cost constraints.
Azure Container Apps Jobs run on demand, scale to zero, and have no platform management overhead. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Virtual Machines would require active infrastructure management and higher idle costs.
Selecting Azure Container Apps Jobs and Azure Functions minimizes administrative management and keeps resource costs tightly aligned to actual usage.

Key Concept

Selecting Azure hosting plans and services based on execution duration limits, scaling patterns, and administrative overhead.
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Topics

Serverless and Web Application Hosting

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