azure App service deploy as code or container?

Question

I have apis written in asp .net core which can be easily containerized, i want to deploy these apis in azure app service, but i am not able to decide whether i should containerize these api and deploy as containers in web app or i can deploy directly as code, On what basis this can be decided i see that App service gives scale out capacity for both way of deployment and other factors like continuous deployment also look same , so how shall i decide which approach to take , or it really doesn't matter in this case?

Answer 1

In my opinion since container is buzz word doesn't mean we definitely need to use it , unless we have very specific reason to. Containers have picked up reputation after since microservice architecture has gained popularity and in that case it works great.

Use Web App for Containers when

• You are trying to package application where dependencies (run-time , tooling etc) are required and critical , so you can bundle them up.

• You want to become cloud agnostic. Containers are best way to switch to other cloud provider e.g. AWS if you have to without making any code changes.

• Lift and shift scenario where you want to move old/legacy code to cloud.

• At some point in future you intend to use API as Microservice and that would require the service being used with orchestration service like AKS (Azure Kubernetes service).

• Some advance cases where you want to run containers as serverless to deal with spikes (Container Instances e.g.)

• You are well aware of containers debugging, ports etc and how they work.

Any other case i would rather stick to App Service as code deployment. You need to aware containers are good but it can be overhead if you don't know how to deal with them.