Microsoft Announces Azure Functions, Service Fabric, and IoT Starter Kit

Microsoft’s day two keynote for Build is all about the developer and its cloud based service, Azure. Announced today are several new services including Functions (which I uncovered previously), Service Fabric, and IoT Starter Kit.

To assert Azure’s place in the cloud wars, Microsoft is doing every thing it can to give its platform a competitive advantage. This means that they are moving forward with the trends in the developer communities such as IoT and microservices as the technology developers, rather than waiting for it to fully mature. To capitalize on these fronts, the company announced the availability and previews of several new products.

• Service Fabric: This is  a microservices application platform developers can use to design apps and services that are available 24×7 at cloud scale with high availability and lifecycle management.
• Functions: This feature lets developers build server-less compute solutions for event-driven needs and the company will only charge for the time a function operates. Seeing as feature this uses an open source runtime, developers can host Function anywhere they want, on Azure or on local hardware.
• IoT Starter Kits: If you have Windows or Linx development experience, these new IoT starter kits allow you to quickly build prototypes that leverage the Azure IoT platform with prices ranging from $50-$160. Also, early adopters can use the Azure IoT Gateway SDK to enable legacy devices and sensors to connect to the Internet without having to replace existing infrastructure.
• DocumentDB: Support for MongoDB and MongoDB drivers as well as improved replication across Azure data centers.

These three new features are part of Microsoft’s strategy to make sure its cloud service is on the leading-edge of where developers are taking applications and also how to scale products and services. With AWS and Google moving aggressively in this segment, Microsoft has to remain competitive on all fronts if they want to entice developers to utilize their platform.