The near end of azure webjobs
I used to be a .NET developer. Nowaways, I am a DevOps solutions architect with a focus on Azure and Kubernetes.
I also love productivity topics, especially when it comes to doing more with less of my time. I'm also a daddy, so time is a limited resource for me.
Azure webjobs have been around for a while. In fact, the Azure functions SDK builds on top of the webjobs SDK. Azure functions are the most popular because of their event-driven and microbilling aspects. Trigger them when an event occurs. Then, only pay for what you use. Scale automatically.
The Microsoft documentation does a great job outlining many differences and giving some opinions.
But, they recently announced a new plan for Azure functions - premium plan. Premium plan backfills many of the weaknesses that Azure functions had over webjobs:
- VNet integration
- No coldstart issue
- Better hardware
So, is there a need to create Azure webjobs anymore? Probably not. There are a few small circumstances, such as the need for file system trigger. Other than that, the only other usecase I can think of is something I needed recently: less outbound IPs. I had a situation in which I had to whitelist my service so having a webjob made the list of possible outbound IPs much smaller than a consumption-based azure function. For a consumption-based azure function, I would have to whitelist the entire datacenter.
