Automate deploying Azure Functions with VSTS

In the past couple of years the software industry has come a long way in professionalizing the development environment. One of the things which has improved significantly is automating the builds and being able to continuously deploy software. Having a continuous integration and -deployment environment is the norm nowadays, which means I (and probably you as a reader also) want to have this when creating Azure Functions also! There are dozens of build servers and deployment tools available, but because Azure Functions are highly likely being deployed in Microsoft Azure, it makes sense to use Visual Studio Team Services with Release Management. Read more →

Starting with Azure Functions

Lately, I’ve been busy learning more about creating serverless solutions. Because my main interest lies within the Microsoft Azure stack I surely had to check out the Azure Functions offering. Azure Functions enable you to create a serverless solutions which are completely event-based. As it’s located within the Azure space, you can integrate easily with all of the other Azure services, like for example the service bus, Cosmos DB, storage, but also external services like SendGrid and GitHub! Read more →

What’s up with this serverless talk?

You’ve probably heard a lot of talk around a new buzzword serverless. It’s a pretty confusing name for an awesome technology/technique. The main reason the word serverless isn’t a very good one is because it implies there aren’t any servers when using this technique. I found a fairly funny CommitStrip about this topic. https://www.commitstrip.com/en/2017/04/26/servers-there-are-no-servers-here` But what does the term mean then? Well, it means you don’t have to worry about servers anymore. Read more →

Designing a microservices architecture

There are dozens of blog posts, articles and books talking about microservices. Some of them talk about the design, other on how to implement and even others talk about why and when to use them. This post will be a combination of them all. I won’t claim to be the all-time-expert on the matter, but I have read quite a bit on the subject, attended some talks and have had the honor to design (and implement) such a solution a couple of years ago. Read more →