what is equivalent of a windows service on azure?

Question

what is the way to have an always running process on azure? on windows it is windows service, but do i have to get a virtual machine just to have a single running process? I have looked at various compute options but none of them seems to match what a windows service does. Is there a different way to achieve what a windows service does on azure?

Answer 1

There is no specific way to run your code in Azure. You have lots of choices, and which you choose is really up to you (and a matter of opinion). But, objectively speaking:

• Install your service as you always have, in a Windows Server VM
• Run your code, without the Windows Service wrapper, in a VM (either Windows or Linux, depending on language)
• Pull your core code out of the service, and run it within a web/worker role (cloud service).
• Run your code in a WebJob.
• Run your code in a Web App (you'd need to add some way to get to it, like a REST API sitting in front of it)

I see that @Neil suggested Service Fabric in his answer. That works too, except you'll need to learn about Service Fabric in general, since it works a bit differently.